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A weekly show from the folks at East Lansing Info breaking down all the news and happenings in East Lansing, Michigan.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of East Lansing Insider. I'm East Lansing info deputy editor, Anna Nichols, and today, we're talking about the upcoming November third general election where voters across Michigan will be determining many high profile elected seats in our state. This includes who will be at the helm of state government and the governor's office as well as our next attorney general and secretary of state. On a local level, East Lansing residents will be choosing who will represent them in the state legislature, both in the Michigan senate and Michigan house of representatives. And then back to a national level, East Lansing along with the of the state will be determining who will be filling the open US senate seat left vacant this coming session as democrat Gary Peters is leaving office.
Anna Nichols:And then perhaps one of the most watched elections in the country, though our US senate race is very contentious and pretty tight, there's been a lot of of news media coverage. East Lansing residents will have an even larger say in Michigan's 7th US Congressional District where incumbent Republican representative Tom Barrett is saving away a Democratic flip by challenger Will Lawrence. And then this is this is a very crowded ballot. There's about two dozen items on it ranging from positions on education boards, positions as judges. There's a lot to talk about on this ballot, but one of the things that East Lansing residents should be aware of is there are five charter amendments for their consideration on the ballot.
Anna Nichols:And this week, we have our managing editor at East Lansing Info, Luke Day, here to explain some of the ins and outs of what's gone into those charter amendment proposals and what voters can expect.
Lucas Day:Yeah. So what we've got is there's five different ones, but they're... I've been categorizing them kind of into three different categories. So first of all, what I've been doing is I've been grouping three of them together because they came from a city committee that spent six, eight months, something like that, reviewing the city charter to recommend changes. And I I think that the three that came out of that committee are probably less controversial than the other two.
Lucas Day:This this is the second set of three amendments that have come from this charter review committee. The previous three all passed with, I think, more than 88 of the vote at the August election. So the... I I mean, these largely allow people within the city to, like, delegate tasks, I guess, a good way to summarize them. Like, one of them lets the city the city clerk appoint someone to go to city council meetings.
Lucas Day:You know, the meetings have been going well past midnight at times this year, and I I I imagine that's sucking up a lot of Emily's time. Emily Gordon, the city clerk. And so there's just... It it lets Emily send somebody else in her place to do things like meeting minutes. There's also one that lets other people sign city contracts than currently can.
Lucas Day:So if the city attorney or if the city CFO are unavailable, they can appoint designees to do that for them.
Anna Nichols:Meaning the the chief financial officer? Yep. Meaning the chief financial officer.
Lucas Day:And then the third one, remove some language from the charter to align it with state law. It has to do with the holidays after city meetings. Right now, because we dealt with this the the last three amendments that go through state law, it trumps local law. So when they're doing things to align the local policies with the state policies, it's really just cleaning up our city charter to match up with, I guess, what's actually happening.
Anna Nichols:Though the charter review committee has come up with, more than 20 proposals for for East Lansing residents to potentially be seeing on the ballot over the next couple election cycles, Some of them are, you know, not the most groundbreaking. They're they're a change of of minor words, or they put into practice, put into place into writing policies that the state does require or that East Lansing already performs. But there are some that, you know, do allow new functions such as these designee rules.
Lucas Day:Right. And like I said, all three of these really touch on designees. They simplified the third one a little bit because it's... It... It's kinda got a couple different roles.
Lucas Day:I think that the language in it is pretty self explanatory. But I I I I mean, I don't expect any of these to be controversial at the ballot. I think it's gonna be, the last time that the first three went through. But the two the two that are more controversial, and I'll start with the one that we've heard more discussion on in the city, It would switch city council elections from even year... Or from odd numbered years to even numbered years.
Lucas Day:And why that matters is because city council elections happen in November. So if you've got a November 2025 race, you've got, you know, 6,000, maybe 6,500 people that come out and vote. You're gonna have well over 20,000 that vote in the November 2026 race. You're aligning the city council election now with with the state and federal races that, you know, drive turnout. And if this goes into place, it will, extend the the terms of the current city council.
Lucas Day:Everybody in the city council gets one more year added to their term. There isn't... You can't shorten their terms. So there really wasn't a way to do that if they wanted it to in go place in 2028 without extending the terms.
Anna Nichols:This would be just a one time thing in order to get us on that even year cycle.
Lucas Day:Yep. Well, I mean, I guess two time thing because it would extend, you know, the people that are up in 2027 currently and the people that are up in 2029. So everyone on the city council right now gets one more year if this if this goes through. And it's it's drawing a lot of debate locally. I mean, there's signs up for both sides.
Lucas Day:I've seen people from opposing signs on... Online accusing the other side of, you know, spreading misinformation. I wouldn't say it's as contentious as the housing charter amendment in 2024, but there's definitely some contention there.
Anna Nichols:The main arguments for, coming from the supporters of this this charter amendment is that putting this... As you kind of already mentioned, putting this on an even year election puts seats like the East Lansing city council the same... In the same election cycle as virtually all other races and would take the people who already are more predisposed to vote in even your elections, such as the presidential election, such as, you know, now we have the gubernatorial election. Take those... That voter block that is already predisposed to vote then and potentially get them to vote in a race that maybe they're not voting in in these odd year elections.
Anna Nichols:The opposition to this is arguing, you know, in those even year elections, you're voting democrat or republican for so many of these statewide offices, whereas the East Lansing city council is a nonpartisan election. And the opposition sees a lot of value in holding a nonpartisan election and is arguing that the addition of city council of these local elections onto these even year election ballots would lead to more partisanship voting, more straight ticket voting leading to, you know, maybe a different result than we've been seeing in these these odd year elections. They're arguing it would make these partisan elections, whereas the city of East Lansing has benefited from a more local perspective, more, you know, evaluating your fellow neighbors on the ballot of what they have done in the community and what they could do in the community.
Lucas Day:Yeah. I know that the people... You know, you'll see, like, there's a lot of discussion around students voting, and it's true that, like, student turnout is super low in the city council elections. I think a lot of students, you know, aren't engaged in local government one, but also are registered at their parents' address and vote, you know, maybe in their hometown where they know the people on the ballot instead of here. Whereas during these major elections in East Lansing, you see kids registering to vote for the first time.
Lucas Day:You see long lines at, like, the city clerk's office. I I I... There's arguments for and against, students voting, I guess. Some people think that they're uneducated voters. Some people think that, you know, this is always going to be a college town, and it would be a good thing to have those voices represented.
Lucas Day:But I know that the campaign that's, you know, in favor of this, says that it's more than just about students because across the board, turnout is down in odd year elections, and that is that is true. There's no precincts that get majority votes in in odds your elections whereas in even your elections, you know, you'll get 6066% in a lot of precincts. So... Yeah. There's...
Lucas Day:I I I hear the arguments both for and against. I'm really curious actually how this one turns out. Usually, I think I've got kind of a beat on how these things are gonna play out at the ballot, and I I I really don't know about this one. I'm wondering if the student vote plays an impact and maybe... Because students usually vote yes on things.
Lucas Day:I've I've just noticed, and I wonder if the student vote does heavily influence this, which I I mean, I just think is kind of a interesting local electoral question. Like, would the result on this question that seeks to drive... You know, like, the goal of this of this committee is to drive turnout. Would the result be different if this very... If if this exact same question was on an odd year ballot versus an even year ballot where we're gonna have more people at the, you know, voting.
Lucas Day:I don't know. I'm I'm curious about how it turns out, though.
Anna Nichols:And that youth, voter turnout can't be overlooked, especially as we're considering moving to these even year elections because while, yeah, odd year elections don't draw a lot of participation, even even the primaries in even year elections are seeing this increase. Our own city city clerk said to prepare this November for presidential level voter turnout. About 8,000 ballots were cast in East Lansing in in this year's August primary. In 2024, it was 5,000 ballots for the primary election. So that is a 3,000 vote difference in election that, you know, the next time around got 8,000.
Anna Nichols:So that's a huge, huge jump. Mind you, in 2024, Michigan put up record numbers for youth voter turnout. It was... It's... I think it marked a four year high for young voter turnout nationwide.
Anna Nichols:I believe Michigan ranked third in the nation for youth youth voter turnout. So, you know, this this could be a huge deal to move to the even year elections.
Lucas Day:Yeah. I mean, if you get some extra time on your hands, you should go. And like I mentioned earlier, the the committee that's for this says that's more than just the students. It's... It it increases turnout across the table.
Lucas Day:And that that is true, but it will have a really big impact on the students versus those on campus precincts are below 2% turnout in
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Lucas Day:Odds your elections. But if you get some extra time on your hands, go down to the East Lansing Library and look at some of the newspapers from November in the early seventies. And the stories about East Lansing elections being run by students, basically, student backed candidates were being ushered in the in the office after this voting wave that came after the voting age was lowered to 18 in wake of the Vietnam War. I I I mean, I just think that's a fascinating piece of history, but I've seen candidates try to draw a turnout, I guess, on campus, and it hasn't it hasn't worked recently.
Anna Nichols:Yeah. And I genuinely... I'm I'm really curious how that works for... I'm sorry. This does go back to, like, these national offices.
Anna Nichols:I'm curious what that'll look like in these high profile, national election of these US senate and US representative seat. I mean, you go on East Lansing campus, there are chalk drawings and signs and door knockers all over the place for the democratic challenger for the Michigan US 7th Congressional... Michigan's US 7th Congressional District, for Will Lawrence. His name is all over MSU campus. I don't see as much representation for the incumbent Republican US representative Tom Barrett.
Anna Nichols:And then you look at who's getting engaged, who's mobilizing in the US senate race, that would be Republican Mike Rogers versus Democrat Abdul Said. Said is on the college campuses. I believe Mike Rogers just the other day was over in the UP. These candidates with races this tight, traditionally, nonvoting... Nonparticipatory voting blocks or areas where they...
Anna Nichols:It's possibility for a flip, that's where I think many would assert the victory lies of what new voters, what long nonparticipatory voters can you mobilize.
Lucas Day:Yeah. And then the the last petition or the charter amendment proposed is it's a little bit unique. So this petition, what it would do is it would have the city create a health care advisory committee in the city charter that the city would then implement. And this committee would essentially study health care access and affordability to the people of East Lansing and make a report. And this is this is something that a large nonprofit has spent a lot spent a lot of money implementing on ballots in East Lansing and then I think six other cities, maybe five other cities, including Lansing.
Lucas Day:They're all Michigan cities. I know Kalamazoo was one. But it's it's it's different than other proposals, I guess, I've seen working locally because the issues it's trying to tackle is... Are largely state and federal, you know, especially federal issues, but it'd be done through a local commission. And so I've heard people that don't like this because, you know, it takes...
Lucas Day:The commissioners are all volunteers. But, you know, you still gotta sense sense staff to, you know, run the meetings, you know, set up the chairs, whatever it may be, even if it's not a large cost. Some people don't like spending a dime on something that they think should be handled by other governments or the state and federal government, I guess. And it's it's not like a secret that that that what they're doing is is focused on state and federal issues. Like, they've got a website for East Lansing.
Lucas Day:The Community Action Michigan is the name of the group. And if you go to it, as soon as you click on East Lansing, it's a picture of Tom Barrett, you know, our our US congressional representative. And it says, Tom Barrett cut health care and gave billionaires a tax break. It's time for East Lansing to fight back. And so it's very focused on these national congressional figures, whereas these other commissions, like, I I attend a lot of the commission meetings.
Lucas Day:It's the city's police oversight commission, human rights commission, things like the historic district commission that, decides whether or not residents can make changes to their houses if they're in his... Historic districts. The planning commission, which helps give recommendations to the city council about zoning and new projects coming into towns. You know, there's a there's a whole catalog of them. But most of these commissions, like I was saying, or at least the ones that are regularly held, like, they're hyper local.
Lucas Day:There's a hyper local focus from them. They're all focused on ES... Or on East Lansing's rules and regulations. And this one is focused on the federal government largely. And so that's that's why that's why it's different.
Lucas Day:I... I'm... I I... I've heard, like, the arguments for it, and I I I do think that there's merit in trying to tackle health care affordable. It's a huge it's a huge issue in this country.
Lucas Day:I do think it's kind of an interesting approach of creating of creating committees to gather that information from other residents and, you know, report back to the national government about what we're hearing. It's just... It's a really unique format. And so I'm I'm wondering, again, how this one goes over.
Anna Nichols:Another thing I would plug just because, you know, Michigan is so unique. We're the only state that puts it on a statewide ballot, some of these university governance boards. In Michigan, that means just three universities, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and here in East Lansing, Michigan State University. Positions that act as their governance board, those are statewide elected positions. Meaning, it doesn't matter if you live in Iron Mountain or Alpena.
Anna Nichols:You vote for these these university governance boards. And for Michigan State University, there has been, you know, years of turmoil, infighting, and and just a lot of attention on the Michigan State University board of trustees. Mind you, the the board of regents for University of Michigan, they've dealt a little bit with this as well. But Michigan State University, honestly, is head and shoulders above the rest for controversies surrounding their governance board. And so, all three of these universities, voters will have the opportunity to vote for two individuals to fulfill these roles.
Anna Nichols:These are also the longest terms in Michigan, elected offices. These are eight year terms. There is no term limit, meaning you can be on the board for decades, and many people are. So that's on the ballot.
Lucas Day:And and and, locally, we have school board races this year too. Like the city council elections, the school board used to be in odd years, but they got flipped over to even years in not too distant past. But the school board race is one that you've really gotta pay attention to because all the candidates that are running aren't named on the ballot. So there are four seats that are open on the school board, and there's only three candidates listed on the ballot. Those candidates are Talia Ferris Highland, who's an incumbent, Abby Tykaki, she's a...
Lucas Day:She's an incumbent, and then Delia Fernandez Jones. So those names are on the ballot. There are three other official write in candidates that have declared with the county and that you can vote for. Just make sure you spell their names correctly and make sure that you write them clearly in the write in spot. I mean, you can vote for multiple write ins, so you don't have to write for the people's names that are on there.
Lucas Day:But those write in candidates' names are Scott Farber, Timothy Schmidt, and Abigail Wright Geddes. And if you wanna find out more about them, we've got a story that's called meet this... Meet the East Lansing school board candidates, and we have... We asked every candidate three different questions, and they gave us written responses. And so you can figure out what their positions are on on budgeting, on how the school district interacts with, technology, and, what the district should do on school safety.
Lucas Day:Though I I thought those pretty much encompassed most East Lansing parents main... Major concerns about the district, and so we got answers to all those questions. But, again, it's... This is one that people should really come into the ballot box prepared for because you can't just, you know, check a name. You've gotta actually write out names if you would like to vote for one of those write in candidates.
Lucas Day:Again, you're voting for four candidates. There's only three on the... Three whose names are on the ballot, but there's three write in candidates that you can choose from. So remember the names of the write in candidates if you're someone like me who, know, you likes to vote in per... Person.
Anna Nichols:And then I forgot to mention, East Lansing voters also do have a say in the governance board of Lansing Community College. There's three candidates on the ballot, and you get to vote for two of them.
Lucas Day:And coming into this election, like, it's a little bit different than the city council elections, which I also love to cover. But, like, as a local journalist, it's very different because we don't watch these... I mean, personally, we watch these state and federal races, but we don't write about them as much. And so, like, you know, the school board race, I... I'm interested to see who that last write in candidate...
Lucas Day:Or the one write in candidate. I'm assuming it's only one write in candidate that's gonna end up getting on there. It's just such a big advantage to have your name on the ballot. But, like, that's something we'll be watching, and these charter amendments we'll be watching. But beyond, like, the actual results on election night or the next morning maybe, I...
Lucas Day:I'm curious what turnout looks like in East Lansing. And I say it looks like because sometimes, like, you get more people, but because the elections are running, they're they're, you know, implementing new laws and figuring out ways to shorten lines. It it actually looks like less people are voting. So Mhmm. Off campus, most people are gonna vote via absentee ballot.
Lucas Day:It's been that way since they introduced any recent absentee ballot, after state charter petition or charter amendment passed. But on campus, what you'll have a lot of the time is students wait until election day to either change their registration from somewhere else or register to vote for the first time because they're young. And in 2022, East Lansing was included in national headlines because there were these massive lines at the satellite clerk's office. You can't register just at regular precincts. You gotta register at election day vote centers or at a...
Lucas Day:Or at the clerk's office. And so East Lansing made national headlines because of these massive lines at Brody Hall where students could register and vote the day of the election. And, like, I I think they were headlines that were made in a good way. Like, look at how engaged these students are. But then we actually had turnout that was higher in 2024 than 2022, and the lines were a lot shorter because they got more efficient.
Lucas Day:And, again, this was not the 2022 clerk's fault. She had less tools, I guess, you could say in her in her toolbox because the laws changed. But, while students were in line until after midnight in '22, the longest lines of the day were about an hour, they told me, in '24. And, again, that's in the places that you can register and follow. Other places in East Lansing, the regular polling places, you're not gonna have to worry about long lines.
Lucas Day:Like, it's... You... You've solved. We gotta deal with lines in the regular polling places. And so that's something that I'm gonna have my eye on, to see if, you know, East Lansing makes national headlines again for turnout and if it's because of the lines or if it's because, you know, the students flipped a race in favor of, you know, Will Lawrence or Abdul Alsi because we know that the campus precincts vote heavily heavily democrat.
Lucas Day:The the other thing, and this is kinda morbid curiosity because I have to stay up until these results come in, is does it take East Lansing longer to submit its results because we have write in candidates for school board? It seems like those would take longer to count. And I always see Amy and Emily Gordon flying around on Election Day. They're, like, sprinting from one part of the Hanna Community Center to outside to get to their car. I don't know where they're going, but they're always running, they always say hi to me when they pass by.
Lucas Day:And I I like to shout them questions, and that's... I'm gonna shout that question to them. Like, does it extend the time these results actually come in because they've gotta count the names on the school board election? I don't know. It's just...
Lucas Day:We don't deal with write in candidates very often. This is kind of an important seat for a write in candidate, so I'm I'm really curious if that changes the timing of things.
Anna Nichols:The sister clerks.
Lucas Day:Yeah. The sister clerks.
Anna Nichols:East Lansing has a really crowded ballot this time around. There's a lot for East Lansing voters to consider. To make this a little easier to help promote good information, East Lansing info does have a voter guide available for East Lansing residents. It's Eli's voter guide for the November third election. It's on our website at eastlansinginfo.news.
Anna Nichols:Also, if you'd like to hear more about the odd year even year election on a previous episode of East Lansing Insider also published on our website, we do have a podcast that that goes over each side.