The Aug. 6 primary election is approaching, and early voting begins Saturday, July 27. Voters in the White Lake area who do not want to wait to cast their ballots can visit the Muskegon County Marquette Campus office between then and Aug. 6; the office has been set as the designated early voting site for most Muskegon County precincts.
Early voting hours are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 27 and Aug. 3; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 28 and Aug. 4; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of next week and Monday, Aug. 5; and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1.
The ballot is mostly limited to non-contested races with only one candidate for each of the two major parties, but one major exception is the race for U.S. Senator. Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow is not seeking a fifth term after holding the seat since her 2000 election, and two Democrats and four Republicans are vying for their party’s spot in November’s general election.
Elissa Slotkin and Hill Harper are the two Democrats running for the seat. Slotkin is currently Michigan District 7’s representative in the U.S. House, and Harper is a political advocate and actor; he has appeared on TV shows The Good Doctor, CSI: New York, and Limitless.
The four Republicans on the ballot are Sherry O’Donnell, Sandy Pensler, Mike Rogers and Justin Amash. Pensler, a former Wayne County commissioner who also ran for the Senate seat in 2018, is on the ballot but not actively in the race after having dropped out Saturday. O’Donnell is a physician who ran for a House of Representatives seat in 2022. Amash is a former Michigan Congressman who left the Republican Party during Donald Trump’s presidency. Rogers is a former Michigan Congressman who served as chair of the House’s Intelligence Committee from 2011-15.
The only other countywide race on the ballot that will be contested is the Democratic one for Water Resources Commissioner. David Farhat and Stephanie Barrett are seeking to be the Democratic candidate opposite presumed Republican candidate Zach Lahring, who is not being opposed. Farhat is the former chairman of the Muskegon County Republican Party and previously ran for the position as a Republican in 2014, and Barrett is the current deputy water resources commissioner. Incumbent Brenda Moore, a Democrat, is not running for re-election.
In Fruitland Township, two candidates are on the Democratic Party ballot for supervisor - Nicholas Cribley and Kimon John Kotos. Records show Kotos ran for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in Michigan in 2006, while Cribley, a technician at Preferred Chevrolet Buick GMC, does not have any prior political experience. Current supervisor Jeff Marcinkowski, a Republican, is not listed on the ballot.
Fruitland voters will also choose among six Republican candidates for four spots on the township board. The six are Brent Brower, Sondra Cross, Vicki Graham, Michael Holman, Harry Meersma and Christopher VanOosterhout.
The Dalton Township supervisor role is also scheduled to change hands, as Jeff Martin has publicly said he will not seek another term. Three Republicans are on the primary ballot seeking that position: Heather Petrie-Cooley, Rory Rought and William Scutt. Rought ran against Martin in the 2020 Republican primary and lost by nine votes in a count marked by controversy involving improperly stored absentee ballots that were deemed ineligible to be counted in a recount Rought requested. Petrie-Cooley is currently the Dalton Township clerk, having been promoted from deputy clerk this month after Tracy DeMarse resigned as clerk for health reasons. Scutt is the former Bedford Charter Township supervisor in southern Michigan and recently moved to Dalton Township.
In addition to those races, voters will also be asked to weigh in on Muskegon County’s senior millage renewal. If approved, the millage would renew at the same rate it currently collects - 0.4921 mills, or 49.21 cents per $1,000 of a property’s taxable value. The ballot language estimates the millage would account for $2.6 million of revenue for 2024 if approved. The millage funds various activities benefiting county seniors, such as plowing their driveways during the winter and providing food vouchers for the county farmer’s market.
