welcome to our july segment of city connections and very apropos the topic today is on the coming elections so we are really grateful to have three really important people in this area who help us with keeping our elections so democratic and pure so wonderful we have justin road back here and you are the county elections coordinate elections are already there for i do a county wonderful and dan krueger who a county clerk and he just added a register to that also wonderfully and we have an upper alice who works for the city of holland as our city clerk and also sits next to me yeah so that's awesome so we have a great team here of people that really know what's going on in the a lot of changes that we've had recently probably one of our bigger ones is the redistricting who would like to talk about that redistricting she can joke about perfect well we had added there were changes in the album portion of the city album county portion of the city with congressional districts so we had to once we found out that there was some changes made dan and justin assisted me with making some boundary changes and we had to make these changes as they were proposed to us we were they had four splits in allegheny county and to eliminate the splits we went back to four two which was four two which is now changed to four nine precinct nine is now a split it's the only split we have because we made an effort to make sure that there were no splits so we didn't have any voter confusion at the polls on election day so this is our part of the allegheny county portion of the city of highland correct and we might want to go back a little bit because if we had nothing to do with the way that this was determined so this is determined by the state legislature through their reapportionment process and in their wisdom  they decided that the year is that you see in blue on the map are going to be in the six congressional district and the rest of the green areas in the second congressional district they do that every ten years they reapportion the districts and as and a pointed out there were four splits in the normal precincts we had before the redistricting took place and that tends to be a little bit confusing both from the voter standpoint and from the precinct workers standpoint to make sure that the right voter gets the right ballot so and i asked if we could do something to alleviate that process so we got it down to only one precinct split and that's pretty reasonable for what we could do so excellent so that's one change now how about our polling stations and what are we doing with that  you know what she did here was save quite a bit of money in the process as well because rather than having precinct locations in all of the different precincts themselves they have a precinct location in the ward which alleviates needing to move material it alleviates needing to rent space to do that so it was a cost cutting measure and that's important for people understand as well yeah we did have fifteen when we started and we brought it down to seven well almost half less than half yeah and staffing that is right last to i some well that's great now are you going to let people now if they get cards in the mail yes after a district team we are required correct to send out all registered voters a new voter identification card which will be sent out we're hoping in the middle of july we are in the process of doing that at this time and so everybody will receive their new information who their congressional district is what county commissioner district there in their polling location will also be placed on the voter id card grade that's for every single voter in the city of power correct and we have we have about twenty two thousand one hundred eighty eight registered voters at this time so we will get those out so if you do not receive your card you know or say by the end of july please call our office and we will look into that ok so what about absentee voters who are people that have trouble getting to the voting station to vote ok we do have absentee ballots jurisdiction where you would normally live or vote or certain tenets of your faith require you to be absent from the polls on election day and i think that's there's a as a basic  and so so just being over the age of sixteen does one have you know correct and so she will mail an application to vote absentee to that list for every election so there's still an application process they still have to apply for the ballot but at least they're automatically on that list to receive an application to do that ok so they can't just say i don't have to do anything till i vote every time they have to fill out the examination and that application and anybody can request an application until the saturday prior to the election and then if you come in the monday prior to the election you have to vote your ballot in the courts office so other words if you've waited the entire time and then on monday you realize i'm not going to be here on tuesday you can't come into the clerk's office apply for an absentee ballot but you can't leave the office with the ballot ok so it's not great they're still yeah and you are open and saturday and so they know right awesome so that's pretty accommodating how many people are in that and that list of absentee voters we have about twelve hundred permanent voters well that's great so what else do we need to tell people about the elections that have changed or they should know about the date for the election that's coming in august will be august seventh ok and and then out if there are people who have moved within the city they don't need to come back and reregister they can register their new address once they go vote but if you've moved into the city or moved out of the city then you need to register again prior to the night to be able to vote in august thirty days prior thirty days what if you forget to register for the august election but you still want to vote in the november election can you do that you bring up a good point because there are a lot of people who just simply sit back and say i don't have to vote in august you know it's a primary election well august in this area is probably one of the more important elections because you choose your candidates to run for office both on the republican and democratic side so where you have a choice of two or three republicans for an office or two or three democrats for an office that's where you get to narrow it down to the person you really want to run and the person you know unfortunately perhaps unfortunately and i would carry the person who generally gets the nomination for a particular party is the one who generally wins in november so your choice is really in august not in november except when it comes to president and congress and you know those kinds of things yeah yeah so we really need to start your patriotism earlier absolutely absolutely important  your your voice is your vote and regard it was of a lot of things happen at the local level that are important and can affect you even more quickly than the national absolutely you have to be concerned aware of what happens at the lo yeah so you know what if i feel real strongly about getting people out to vote and i know a lot of people haven't even registered to vote and i want to host of a vote become a voter also offer training for those individuals who would like to specific groups quite often what will do for college group or for other individuals who you know like to organize and kind of amass voter registration project will kind of walk through that process with them show them what they are the important elements of the form and make sure that they get the right information from people and that just ends up being a cleaner process on on an ascendant on the clerks and when they come back to make sure that those forms get processed quickly and efficiently so the state of michigan in fact would dan can probably speak a little bit better this but there is legislation that's just passed actually that mandates a requires the training of third party registrations now in ottawa county we've done that for a long time but it's not been a mandatory thing until this bill is just passed and i believe that takes effect after this august election but before november so we are going to be seeing some changes there and how we those third parties register voters but it's certainly still an option for people to organize and register voters like that it's important and certainly when you know we have high school sometimes the principals of the high school call and you know we'd like to have our seniors register to vote we are able to go out and do that we have the colleges call  republican democratic organizations from the universities and colleges can you come out and register we train those people to go out and do that themselves so we have that ability at this point is just and pointed out after august fifteenth any third party group whether it's a democratic organization from grand valley or a hole or you know public organization whatever legal women voters for example they have to register with the state but then they have to be trained by us to do that so you know and part of the reason for that is that we've had over the years a whole lot of problems with third party organizations registering people  that have already been registered and what what hed what it amounts to in she can tell you this that she gets all those registration she has to go through a check every one of and duplicate after duplicate after duplicate comes through and that takes up her time in her resources so she's not able to do some other things as well so you know it's not and not attempt to avoid registering people in fact we're trying to make sure that people have the opportunity to register to vote it's simply a matter of reducing the duplications issues the cost in the effort that goes into that you know our objective is to make sure that everybody in the county that wants to vote is registered to you know somebody can walk into and his office my office township office secretary of state's office and register to vote they don't need anything at this point now it's a good point that you make as well because  one of the laws that was just passed indicates that in order to register to vote i have to have a picture id so that passed and it will not go into effect until after the august primary but you're going to need a picture id in order to register to vote now there is some controversy over whether or not that's judiciously apropos but you know that's something for the courts to decide if somebody bring saw a lawsuit but that will occur in the meantime we follow the legislative the sensually absolutely oh we've had a lot of big changes a lot of different things happening and  really have to keep your to the ground because changes keep happening you know we just had that we just had meeting this afternoon at lunch and we went over a lot of the stuff with the rest of the clerks we had a representative from secretary of state's office at our meeting who went over some of this as well we had a whole lot of laws passed yesterday that they're on their way to the governor for signature and you know if they pass then they'll go into effect right after the primary election on the fifteenth but they involve a lot of things that people are going to be used to doing number one you're going to see a citizenship question on your application to vote when you walk into the the precinct to vote there's a little section there that says are you a citizen of the united states and you have to check that so it's going to be there in august it will be more stringent in november but you will have to designate that you will have to check it and there are certain procedures that the precinct workers will have to follow in august if that's not checked and again in november if it's not checked the law is going to be a little bit stricter if you don't check that you're not going to be able to get a ballot to vote so that's one obviously you have to show a picture id when you go into vote and that's state logged and state law for a while when you go in to get absentee ballot now in person if i walk in day at his office and i want to pick up my absentee ballot i will need a pictured id in order to pick up my absentee ballot which is a new one ok again this is not for august but will happen in november so someone else can go pick up your  changes that will will happen so people ought to be aware of those things as well hopefully we won't have any new laws passed between now and november that will have to put into effect but they seem to be turned on him out on back where you know these are  i hate to be critical of the legislature but you know some of these bills have been hanging around there for eighteen months and they passed the senate or the house within a certain period of time and then they've been lingering in there and the other house and we tried to get them moved let's get this going to get into it i did yeah and they just you know like you said there were probably nine of them passed yesterday so you know and they all affect what we do not necessarily for obviously we have a really high turnout in ottawa county typically is about ten percent over the statewide average voter turnout for pretty much any election our presidential primary i believe statewide was something like twenty percent we had we had about twenty six percent so we always typically see a little bit more august elections again the turnout anywhere is zero is a lot less in a primary election than it isn't in november general but typically we can see as high as sixty five seventy percent turnout countywide in november wow that's pretty good very good margins and we think that we need the state in that percentage if you look at counties that are you know where the eighth largest county in the state so if you look at the percentage of voter turnout that we have being a large county in the state we beat every other county out of numbers no you're wrong i'm just you know percentage wise i think you know just and pointed out very accurately we were in the sixty's and seventy percent and that's just you know for our star that was on her normally for a presidential election mattia only you're looking at between fifty and fifty five percent so it's amazing how afghanistan and what those people went through their first year of voting and everything you're like whoa i so take this for granted you have to mention all the other choices we had when we got up this morning just because we live in a free country right but freedom want to continue to be free it's not automatic pilot and we have to be responsible in our decisions and be informed public when we vote and all of that takes time and effort and involvement and that is exciting and to have an area where people care and are involved and not just in the elections either but in the nonprofit sector and all the ways that we try to step up and and help our neighbor is important and  clerk's office is busy year round maximum election day and that's always i mean you guys are kind of the front door for city hall whenever as people call three five five thirteen hundred they go to your office right you have a virtual information books and some people everywhere and whenever people need information about communication or whatever has happened in the background of an issue they can come to you for a foyer request right for the freedom of information act then you have to look up all that stuff make all those copies send all that stuff out and do elections right so a lot of paperwork a lot of minutes and agendas that come out of your office and you're not and nothing happens at any level of government without a lot of backing mentation and a lot of accuracy and thoroughness absolutely one of the things that people don't understand and i you know before i got involved in this issue i didn't understand either you know most people walk into the polls on election day and think it's one day and that's it we were done with yeah exactly well you know justin and i talk about that you know this is about a nine month process you know we kind of refer to it giving birth to an election now because we started long long ago preparing for this election and there's a lot more into it than just you know here's the booth i'm going to you know where your ballot in one day and that's it yeah there's preparation and everything that goes with it and it does a super job in the city of knowledge getting this stuff together and making sure that it's already go so yeah we have we appreciate all her hard work all your hard work and  have everything is correct yeah and we get the blame when it's wrong and that's we have we do a lot more of it on a consistent basis than a lot of the clerks do in we certainly should be held accountable for doing what we're supposed to be doing and doing it right yeah yeah but anyway what we really appreciate you taking time out of your super busy schedules to come down and talk to us about elections and helping the public understand what's going on in that all the changes and we appreciate you guys thank you watching the legislature and listening and applying everything they send out to you and keeping this area and involved in on the cutting edge of of making the decisions for our local area state and national elections so yeah yeah great meeting you and having you all here today so great so thank you for tuning in to our july segment of city connections and we hope to see you back next month for our august exciting edition