Billion dollar question on Nov. 5 ballot

By Nicholas Ketchum
Deputy Editor

Many Washtenaw County voters will go to the polls on Nov. 5 to fill local political offices and decide proposals; one of which has raised eyebrows.

The big proposal

Several proposals are up for vote, including a $1 billion capital bond proposal by Ann Arbor Public Schools to finance new construction, remodeling, furnishing and re-equipping, and acquiring, improving and developing real estate sites for the district.

Lawrence Kestenbaum, Washtenaw County election clerk and register of deeds, said the bond proposal has “raised some controversy” in an otherwise calm election season.

Last January, MLive reported AAPS trustees expressed “mixed reactions” to bond options at a Dec. 2018 meeting. Earlier this year, AAPS also stirred heated discussion in social networking websites such as Reddit after it purchased property from a church for an estimated $850,000 for “school improvements.”

Other proposals

Chelsea School District, Napoleon Schools, Pinckney Schools, Van Buren Schools, and Oakland Community College will also be raising revenue through millages or new bonds.

Other proposals include an initiative to prohibit any cannabis establishment in Northfield Township, millage renewals in Manchester to raise revenue for fire equipment and road maintenance, and a millage increase to add more fire protection in Scio Township.

Kestenbaum said he expects this election to be routine, and does not predict significant waiting times or lines—if any.

He said since Proposition 3 passed last year, which relaxes requirements on absentee mail-in voting, a majority of voters will be voting absentee, helping prevent waiting at in-person polls.

Depending on circumstances, such as a change of address, most voters are able to pick up and drop off an absentee ballot, which can be retrieved from the city or township clerk until 8 p.m. on the day of the election.

Candidates

Three communities will fill non-partisan city council seats: Chelsea, Milan and Saline.

Additionally, the city of Milan will elect a mayor, as well as two members to fill seats on the Milan City Library Board of Directors. The board seats are uncontested.

Michigan city councils are non-partisan, with the exception of three cities: Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Ionia. Township positions in Michigan are partisan.

Kestenbaum said non-partisan city ballots are a throwback to the days where many Michigan citizens had emigrated from New York, where entrenched political machines soured their view of partisan politics. Non-partisan councils were local efforts to reduce the power of those machines.

How to vote

Voters must be registered. That may be completed on election day, itself. Voters not yet registered can do so in-person at their local city or township clerk.

Proposition 3 also relaxed registration deadline requirements to encourage voting.

Polling locations will be held at various city and township clerk offices—not at local precincts used for general elections.

Last-minute absentee ballots can be picked up and dropped off at a local city or township clerk office before 8 p.m. on election day.

For more information about voting, locations, proposals, and candidates visit www.washtenaw.org/304/Elections.

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