Tight presidential race in northern Michigan being 'fought to the last day'

It's been a busy week at the Chippewa County Shooting Association gun range on the outskirts of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

The club is holding it's annual "sight-in" for members to get their scope tuned up for the coming deer hunting season.

And while sitting around the woodstove, the talk inevitably shifts into politics. 

"I would say anybody who's a member at this range is a conservative," said 69-year-old Marine corp veteran Gerry Wolski, who says he bases his vote on gun rights.

"I consider other things, but the most important item to me is firearm ownership and the Constitution and the second amendment."

He says he has already voted Republican in this election, fearing that Democrats will "disarm Americans."

"90-95 per cent of them have never owned a firearm, they've never shot a firearm, have no idea how it works and yet they're trying to pass laws to control it. And that's politics," said Wolski.

"Any politician will say whatever they have to say to get your vote."

Club president Damon Lieurance says this campaign feels very divisive, with people stopping by the Donald Trump signs on this lawn to "swear at me and give me the finger," but he says there's no sign of that at the gun club.

"I think there's some members of the club who vote Democrat but don't talk about it. Conversations can get heated," he said. 

"We have a saying that 'An armed society is a polite society," so the conversations, while heated, do stay polite."

There are also mixed but polite political views on the campus of Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

"[Trump]'s better for the economy. Closed borders. Crime was down. Unemployment was down," said nursing student Joe Barton. 

"And you could actually go out to eat and not have to spend a fortune."

Air force veteran Nathan Prehoda says he is voting for Democrat Kamala Harris, partly because he was stationed in Japan during the Trump administration, which led to "higher tensions" with North Korea and "frankly putting my life at risk."

The 24-year-old received a medical discharge from the military and is now studying electrical engineering at Lake State, partly covered by government subsidy, which he worries could be at risk if Trump wins a second term. 

"It seems like his direction is basically cutting everything from lower middle class and supporting the upper class, when the upper class doesn't need that support. But I in fact need that support so I can learn and become a productive member of society," said Prehoda. 

Michigan is among the seven swing states that are expected to decide this presidential election, after being a solid Democrat state in the past.

John Sellek, a public relations consultant who ran the Michigan campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential ticket, says he's never seen a race like this in the state before. 

"The fight is over some tiny amount of undecided voters who at this point don't seem super likely to show up and vote," he said, saying that parties should instead focus on "persuadables" and getting their own supporters to the polls. 

He says that's especially true in the sparsely populated counties of the Upper Peninsula, that traditional lean Republican.

"The voter turnout there really matters, it especially matters to the Trump team because they need to make up for places where they're not going to win, like the City of Detroit," Sellek said. 

Back at the gun range in Chippewa County, which had a 68 per cent voter turnout in 2020, Gerry Wolski is hoping those divisions fade quickly after a winner is declared.

"I'm very hopeful that I do not see violence. I don't believe in it," he said. 

"And I'm hoping the American public takes this vote as is and accepts the facts on who won and who didn't. This is America, so we got to take it."