Elberta votes
The Michigan primary is Tuesday, August 2.
If you haven’t already taken advantage of absentee voting, as many have, why not come out and vote in person on Tuesday?
Vote at the Community Building at 401 First Street from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can vote for candidates from different parties (for example, a Republican for governor, a Democrat for state rep), and [[CORRECTION (8/1/22): You must vote for candidates from only one party: You can’t vote for a Dem for one race and a Republican for another. But if you don’t like some of the Dems or some of the Republicans, or you don’t know whether you do or not, you can leave certain races blank without voiding your ballot. “You can mark just one item on the entire ballot and it still counts,” says Shannon Spencley.]] yYou don’t have to be registered with a party to vote in the primary. You do have to be registered to vote though, and you can do that right up through August 1 at the County Clerk’s office in the Benzie County Government Center in Beulah.
Elberta voters are in the 1st U.S. Congressional District (still); the newly drawn 104th District for State House of Representatives; the new 32nd District for State Senate; and the 7th District for County Commission. Village and Gilmore Township races are nonpartisan.
Shannon Spencley, our township clerk, provided these pics of what our ballot looks like:
Here’s the list of county candidates and proposals, per the Benzie County website. As you can see, our commissioner, Gary Sauer, is running unopposed.
At the July council meeting, Commissioner Sauer provided this guide to some of the millage proposals on the ballot:
Many thanks to this year’s election workers: Joni Hennard, Lucy Billiau, Becky Addis, Deb McGraw, Carole Ann Lee, and Shannon Spencley. Let’s also acknowledge past years’ poll workers: Barb Drew, Dianne Braybrook, Melina Penne, and Robin Rommell.
Your next big voting opportunity comes November 8, when Village trustee seats and many important statewide proposals, including a few state constitutional amendments, may be on the ballot. Stay tuned for an Alert voter guide sometime before then.
8/4/22 Update: Shannon Spencley said Tuesday evening that voter turnout was 250 out of just under 700 registered voters in this district, which she considered low. See the Benzie County Record-Patriot for the results of the county millage proposals and primary results.
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