A role of stickers for voters sit on a table at a voting precinct in Delhi Township.
News

Michigan youth vote dipped in 2016, but might have surged in 2018

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The 2016 presidential election was a polarizing time for the country, and Michigan was no exception. Donald Trump won Michigan by 0.3 percent, taking the presidency with him by a margin of fewer than 10,000 votes, according to the New York Times. In contrast, Barack Obama won Michigan by 9.5 percent in 2012, netting roughly 450,000 more votes than his runner-up. MLive attributes this swing, at least partially, to voter turnout: More people voted in terms of raw numbers, but fewer voters turned out in traditionally Democratic counties. While partisan shifts are apparent in results, changing participation among Michigan’s voter demographics could provide more insight into the state’s level of civic participation and how it ranks alongside the Midwest and the rest of the country.

News

Legal marijuana proposal could bring financial benefits to Michigan

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Proposal 1, Michigan’s ballot initiative to legalize the recreational use and possession of marijuana, could have a sizable financial impact on the state. A study commissioned by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol estimates the proposal, if successful, will bring roughly $134 million in tax revenue a year to the state by 2023, which could be used for continually underfunded areas such as roads, schools and local governments. “We’re under no assumption that legalizing marijuana is going to solve all our school funding issues and road funding issues,” said Josh Hovey, spokesman for the coalition. “Instead, it’s going to generate hundreds of millions of dollars more than what we’re raising now, which is none.”

Eight of the nine states with legal recreational marijuana became that way because of ballot initiatives, starting with Washington state and Colorado in 2012. States with legal marijuana have reaped financial benefits: In Colorado, the legal marijuana industry has generated more than a billion dollars a year in revenue since 2016, with the state raking in $247 million in taxes and fees in 2017, according to the Denver Post.

Elections & Politics

Politics just don’t interest Harrison Township non-voter

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Roughly 37 percent of Michigan’s voting-age population did not vote in the 2016 presidential election, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s website. David Hilt, 21, of Harrison Township, is one of those 2,862,631 eligible non-voters. “Politics don’t interest me,” Hilt said. “I’m not really into it, I never look into it at all.”

Hilt belongs to a family he would describe as middle-class: His father a carpenter, his mother a manager at a fertility center. Like many, Hilt would never bring up politics at the dinner table, he said.