There is one certainty in the race for Michigan’s secretary of state position this year, all the candidates will be working to get rid of the hanging chads.
Candidates for Michigan’s chief elections officer - two Democrats, three Republicans and one Green Party member - are determined not to let what happened in Florida be repeated.
The six candidates are vying for Secretary of State Candice Miller’s position when she leaves to run for U.S. Congress.
Melvin “Butch” Hollowell, an attorney who works for Attorney General Jennifer Granholm and one of the candidates hoping to secure the Democratic nomination in August, said he is passionate about voting rights.
“People died for the right to vote,” he said. “All of our ancestors, whether we came over on the Mayflower or the Amistad, have made incredible sacrifices for us to have this right.”
Hollowell said he would make the most of technology in updating the process.
“They have a great program down in Georgia,” Hollowell said. “They say that from the minute you walk into a branch office, if your business isn’t done in 15 minutes, they waive your state fee.”
Hollowell is running against fellow Democrat and State Board of Education member John Austin for the nomination.
Austin was not available for comment.
Updating Michigan’s voting process, getting more people to the polls and shortening lines in branch offices are universal goals.
Terri Land, a Republican and Kent County’s clerk for the past eight years, made her office more efficient by juggling employee schedules and delegating duties.
“There’s no one answer in customer service,” Land said. “There are a lot of small answers, and we have to combine them to be the most efficient.”
Land said she supports “no reason” absentee ballots for students whose license addresses are different than their school addresses.
Sen. Loren Bennett, R-Canton, is term-limited in the state Senate and said his experience in local government as an elections clerk has prepared him for office.
“In any elected position, you make the job what you choose to make of it,” Bennett said. “I have as a state senator worked to be available whenever somebody wants time.”
Anne Norlander, the final Republican candidate, has served for more than 12 years as county clerk and register of deeds in Calhoun County. She was unavailable for comment.
Ray Ziarno, the Green Party candidate, also wants to make it easier for students to participate in government, but not through absentee voting.
“Students will be able to vote at their school or their home,” Ziarno said. “Universities will set up polls. The hassle in 2000 was ridiculous.”
Another one of Ziarno’s initiatives would be to make Election Day a holiday for workers.
Ziarno also said he supports instant runoff voting, or IRV, which has voters choose their first, second and third choice of candidates. This practice, he said, has been used in Australia and Europe for years, and Alaska is considering converting.
“A lot of people who would vote for an independent or Green Party candidate don’t because it’s seen as throwing your vote away,” Ziarno said.
