ElectionsEAST REGIONAL EARLY VOTING site, located at the East Bay Charter Township Hall 1965 N Three Mile Road, Traverse City, MI 49696. For the Voters registered at East Bay, Acme, Union, Peninsula, and Whitewater Townships, we will be conducting the Early Voting precinct canvass on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, beginning at 8:00PM in the East Bay Charter Township Hall copier room.
Absentee ballots for the August 6, 2024, State Primary will be put in the mail on July 1. If you don't have yours within a week, let us know.
Way to Go, Michigan! In case you didn’t know, MIT’s Election Data and Science Lab’s most recent Elections Performance Index ranks Michigan as #2 in the country for election administration! To see the map and key indicators, visit https://electionline.org/electionline-weekly/2024/03-21/. Let's Talk Elections! The State Primary is slated for August 6, 2024, and the General Election for November 5, 2024. Voters have three options for casting their ballots in the upcoming state primary and general election. 1. In-person Voting on Election Day Peninsula Township residents who live in Precinct 1 vote at Peninsula Township Hall at 13235 Center Road. Residents in Precinct 2 vote at First Congregational Church at 6105 Center Road. Precincts open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 8:00 p.m., but any voter who is in line at 8:00 p.m. will be allowed to vote. 2. Absentee Ballot Thanks to election laws passed in 2022, voters who would like to automatically receive an absentee ballot for all elections they are entitled to vote in must complete a single application and check the box to join the new permanent ballot list, which will soon replace the absentee voter list. The clerk’s office sent this application and a letter of explanation to every registered voter in the township last December. Those of you who filled out the application and checked the requisite box will automatically receive an absentee ballot for both the August primary and the November general election plus all additional elections going forward. Absentee ballots for August were mailed in late June, and absentee ballots for November will be mailed in late September. If you didn’t join the permanent ballot list and would like to, please reach out to the clerk’s office via email at [email protected]. We are required by law to receive this information in writing. Likewise, if you do not want to join the list but would still like to vote absentee in this year’s state primary and/or general election, please reach out to the clerk’s office, again via email. If you can’t remember whether or not you signed up to be on the permanent absentee ballot list, don’t worry—just give us a call or send us an email. The many changes in election law can be confusing, and we are here to help. 3. Early Voting The new, constitutionally mandated nine days of early voting begin the second Saturday before each state and federal election. Peninsula Township has partnered with East Bay, Acme, Whitewater, and Union townships to offer early voting at East Bay Township Hall at 1965 N. Three Mile Road from 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. each of the nine days before the state primary and the general election. Early voting for the August state primary begins at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 27, and ends at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 4. Early voting for the November 5 general election begins at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 26, and ends at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 3. If you are not currently registered to vote, stop by the Peninsula Township clerk’s office during regular office hours or from 8:00–4:00 the Saturday before election day before going to the early voting site. How to Make Sure Your Vote Counts for the State Primary and General Election Do not “split” your ticket, i.e., cross party lines, by voting in more than one party section in the state primary. The August ballot has both a front side and a back side. The front side contains both a partisan section and a proposal section. The partisan section will have two vertical columns. Democratic candidates for county, state, and national offices will appear in the first vertical column and Republican candidates for the same offices in the second vertical column. (The party the secretary of state belongs to determines which party is represented first on the ballot.) The back side of the ballot will contain Democratic candidates for township offices and delegates to the county convention in one vertical column and Republican candidates for township offices and delegates to the county convention in the second vertical column. (Again, the party the secretary of state belongs to determines which party is represented first on the ballot.) In the partisan sections on both the front and back of the ballot, you decide which party primary you wish to participate in and vote in the column of your choice, but YOU CAN ONLY VOTE IN ONE COLUMN, I.E., FOR ONE PARTY. If you vote in more than one column, your partisan votes will be invalidated. The tabulator will catch this error in the precincts on election day and prompt you to spoil your ballot and start over, but this isn’t possible for absentee voters who have already turned in their ballots. All voters can vote in the proposal section, which in August is the third vertical column on the front of the ballot. In August, you must pick a party and stick with it. In the partisan sections, vote one column or vote the other but do not vote both or your votes will not count! In November, you may vote for candidates in more than one party, i.e., split your ticket, regardless of where on the ballot a candidate appears. The November ballot will also likely have both a front and a back. Helpful Reminders:
Please reach out to the clerk's office if we can answer any questions. You can reach Clerk Becky Chown at [email protected]
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