To Vote or Not to Vote?

Tuesday, August 5^th is Primary Election Day; and a lot of readers will be saying, “So?”.  Primary elections are the “runner-up” elections for the November General Election. In the Primary, we get to choose which candidates will be in the running for November. There may be four or five people running for one office in August; the voters will choose which two will run against each other for the BIG election- the November General.

Traditionally, there is a very low turnout for August elections, which seems funny because if the best candidates don’t win then they can’t even be on the ballot for the General election.

Michigan Election Laws only allow you to vote in either the Republican side or the Democrat side of the ballot. No other parties will be on the ballot, and if you “cross parties” and vote for each side, none of your partisan votes will count. The explanation for this is that you are choosing “your” party candidates for the big race. If I had my way, I’d change it so you could vote for all parties in the Primary. But then if I had that kind of power, I’d change a lot of other things about elections too!

So get an absentee ballot from our office until Monday at 4:00 p.m., or go to the polls on Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. To find out if you are registered, or where to vote, or to see a sample ballot, visit Elections under the Clerk’s page at www.auburnhills.org.

See you there!

Terri Kowal, City Clerk