Tagged: voting

Playing politics with the ballot: conflicts of interest for Michigan's Board of State Canvassers

A second potential conflict of interest has appeared on the Board of State Canvassers. That’s the bipartisan state panel that approves petitions and decides whether questions will go on the statewide ballot.

In both cases, the panel members have business or employment interests in the issues put in front of them. They’re big, too, and controversial – a potential challenge to Michigan’s emergency manager law and a preemptive strike at “right-to-work” legislation.

The Michigan Republican Party State Central Committee has decided the state GOP will use a closed presidential primary next year.

That means voters will have to declare a party preference to participate. If Michigan sticks with a February 28 election date, the state GOP could lose half its delegates to the national nominating convention for meeting earlier than party rules allow.

Michigan GOP leaders say the early influence is worth the risk. Michigan Democrats plan to hold closed caucuses May 5, and will likely withdraw from the primary election ballot.

The Secretary of State's office has released unofficial voter turnout results for all the counties in Michigan (the State Board of Canvassers will make them official later this month).

• The voters in Leelanau county scored the best turnout rate in the state at 61.60%
• The voters in Cass county scored the worst turnout rate in the state at 35.74%

Here are the top 5:

1. Leelanau County 61.60%
2. Keweenaw County 59.92%
3. Eaton County 58.26%
4. Benzie County 54.63%
5. Alger County 53.94%

Here are the 5 worst:

We're updating the results as we get them.

People in northern states may be cold, but they seem to vote in higher numbers than in some other states.

In the 2008 election, these states had the highest turnout rates from their voting eligible population according to Michael McDonald's United States Elections Project:

1. Minnesota 77.7%
2. Wisconsin 72.1%
3. New Hampshire 71.1%
4. Maine 70.9%
5. Colorado 70.2%
6. Iowa 69.7%
7. Michigan 68.4%
8. Alaska 67.7%
9. Oregon and Virginia 67.5%
10. Connecticut 67.4%

Bringing up the rear were these states: Hawaii 50.5%, West Virginia 50.7%, Arkansas 52.6%, Texas 54.4%, Utah 54.5%, Arizona 55.1%.

Alex Halderman - the University of Michigan professor who successfully hacked into a test version of the Washington, D.C.'s computer voting system - says Michigan voters should not be worried that their votes will be tampered with on Tuesday's election. 

Haldermn says most of Michigan’s polling places use optical scanners: voters fill out paper ballots that get scanned into a computer.

Democratic Party leaders in Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties have chosen their candidate to replace Robert Jones - Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell.

Robert Jones was running for the Michigan Senate in the 20th district when he died over the weekend. He was battling esophageal cancer.

In Michigan, votes for a deceased candidate do not count, so party leaders had to put forward a new candidate.