Article

Kalamazoo commissioner candidates gear up for August election

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Kalamazoo County’s unofficial candidate list for the upcoming primary election August 2, 2022 lists mostly county commissioners as candidates. Out of the nine districts within Kalamazoo County, the first, third and seventh are the only districts without a candidate running as of mid March. Map of the nine districts of Kalamazoo, out of these districts the first, third and seventh do not have a commissioner candidate yet. Screenshot from the Kalamazoo County Government website. Behind the scenes look at the election

The 2022 election, like past elections, faces staffing issues.

Congress

Campaign volunteer spends election day thanking people for voting

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While many voted early or voted by mail this year, the polls were open in-person voters. Voters who went to the Hannah Community Center were greeted by a passionate campaign volunteer. Alan Shulman is a senior international relations student at Michigan State. He at the community center from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. thanking people for voting and encouraging them to support Democratic candidates including Joe Biden, Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin. “If people care about proper representation, they have to go and make their voices heard on the issues they care about,” Shulman said.

Elections & Politics

Take ID to polls but ID photo optional

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – While courts in other states wrestle with challenges to their voter photo ID laws in the run-up to the November elections, Michigan’s law is firmly in place. Supporters of photo ID requirements argue that they prevent fraud at the polls, while critics counter that they discourage Election Day participation, especially among minority voters who may not have one of the mandatory forms of identification. Michigan is one of 33 states where voters must show proof of identity, according to Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. “The long history of voting rights issues in the United States haunts this debate, with one side focused on preventing voter suppression and the other focused on preventing elections from being ‘stolen,’” the center said. “Frequently, memories are invoked of the extreme suppression of African-American voters in the Jim Crow South or of corrupt ward bosses in the Tammany Hall era, for example, stuffing ballot boxes and encouraging voting ‘early and often.’”
Court decisions on the issue are mixed.

Elections & Politics

Tis the season to be wary — of polls

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING — Voters should cast a critical eye at polls before accepting their findings as truth, experts say. Jeff Williams, chief executive officer of Public Sector Consultants, warns the public and media alike to be critical of polls this election season and the way they’re represented in the press. Public Sector Consultants is a private research and polling company based in Lansing. Erika King, a professor of political science at Grand Valley State University, stressed the importance of knowing the source of a poll. She advised voters to look closely at what information is being provided, how the poll was taken, the kind of people being surveyed and how they were selected.