POLL: Voters Go to Polls Tuesday; Too Many Election Dates, or No?
Three polling dates in six months raise question of whether there's a better way.
Ready for a half-year of serial balloting? Voters will elect municipal leaders and consider school millages in a number of Southeast Michigan districts Tuesday, three months before Aug. 7 statewide primaries to nominate candidates for Congress, the legislature, courts and county offices. Those seats get filled Nov. 6. Springtime votes are needlessly costly and inconvenient, critics say, particularly now that a 2011 state law moves all school board elections to the first Tuesday in November of even-numbered years – coinciding with the selection of a president or governor. That move is intended to reduce "the number of election dates so as to provide more consistency and predictability for potential voters," state Joan Hunault of the state …
In this Article:
Mark Kapel
8:45 am on Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The City of Bloomfield Hills has an annual May election. Commission Candidates are elected on an annual basis with 2 elected in an odd year and three elected in an even year.Switching to an every other year cycle to piggyback on national elections would mean four year terms. The Governor's mandate for School Board elections has created longer terms for Board Members. Some are as long a six years… more ›