The Leelanau County Election Cheat Sheet: What To Know and What to Watch Next Month

The November election is less than two weeks away, and it’s one of the biggest in local memory for Leelanau County. In addition to the presidency and high-stakes races for Congress and the Michigan legislature, Leelanau voters will answer big questions about township and county representation, school funding, and more. Here’s your guide for big things to know – and big things to watch – as the election countdown runs out.

What to know

Voter registration: If you aren’t registered to vote yet, you can do so at your local township or city clerk’s office, including on Election Day itself. You can check your registration status here.

Absentee voting: If you are planning on voting absentee this year, check Michigan.gov for a rundown of what you need to do. The key takeaway: With few exceptions, your ballot must be received by your local clerk’s office by 8pm on Election Day to be counted. If you’ve mailed or dropped off your ballot already and want to check to see whether it’s been received, you can do so at Michigan.gov/vote.

Early voting: You may recall that, in 2022, Michigan voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution that creates an early voting option for all registered voters in the state. Early voting in Leelanau County will kick off this Saturday, October 26, and will stay open until the Sunday before the election. Early voting will be available at the Leelanau County Government Center from 9am to 5pm for all nine days. More information can be found here.

Election Day voting: If you’re planning on voting in-person on Tuesday, November 5, you’ll be voting in a different spot than early voters. Leelanau County has 12 polling precincts, and you can find yours here. All polling precincts will be open from 7am to 8pm on Election Day.

Election results: The Leelanau Ticker will be staying up until the wee hours of the morning on election night to make sure we’re able to bring you complete election results – at least, as complete as poll reporting allows! – on the morning of Wednesday, November 6. Check back then!

What to watch

The county commission race: There are multiple factors that make this fall’s county commission race one of the most notable in recent memory.

For one thing, all seven district seats are contested; the Leelanau Ticker has been introducing you to the 14 candidates over the past three weeks, with our final feature on the matter – a sit-down with the candidates of District 7 – to come this Friday.

For another thing, the board is guaranteed to see majority turnover, with only three incumbents seeking re-election. The election could also swing the partisan balance of the board, which had a Democrat majority – the only county board in northern Lower Michigan to have a left-leaning majority in recent years – until the resignation of District 1 commissioner Jamie Kramer over the summer. The board is currently deadlocked 3-3 Democrat-Republican, with commissioners having opted to leave Kramer’s seat vacant rather than appoint a replacement.

Finally, a detail often lost in the shuffle of this fall’s county commission race is that candidates are seeking longer terms than what has previously been standard in Michigan. In December 2021, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation extending county commissioner terms from two years to four years. That change goes into effect statewide with the November 2024 election. Senator Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), who sponsored the legislation, argued at the time that the change would give county commissioners more opportunity to approach local leadership with “robust analysis and deliberation before the next campaign cycle arrives.”

This year’s winning county commission candidates will be the first ones elected to four-year terms since the Michigan legislature established the two-year standard back in 1966. With the shift, Michigan joins 45 other states that already had four-year terms for county commissioners.

A changing of (drain commissioner) guard: Most incumbents for major countywide positions – including Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Hubbell, Sheriff Mike Borkovich, County Clerk Michelle Crocker, Treasurer John A. Gallagher, and Register of Deeds Jennifer Grant – will keep their seats for another term, as all are running unopposed.

One county role will turn over for the first time in decades, however. Steve Christensen won his first term as Leelanau’s county drain commissioner all the way back in December 1999, and has occupied the position ever since. Christensen opted not to seek re-election this year, opening the door for the first new drain commissioner since the turn of the century. Republican Timothy O’Non, a civil engineer and land surveyor; and Democrat Faith Hoekstra, whose background includes farming, construction, landscaping, and government experience, are competing for the role.

Township supervisor contests: At least one township in Leelanau County is guaranteed to get a new leader this election, and three others could see turnover.

In Solon Township, former fire chief Christopher Comeaux has an open path to the township supervisor office after defeating incumbent James Lautner in the August Republican primary. Comeaux is running unopposed in the general election.

There are also three contested supervisor elections in Leelanau: Empire, where Republican incumbent Carl Noonan will face off against Democrat David Hendricks; Leland, where Democratic incumbent Susan Och is seeking her third four-year term against Republican Clint Mitchell; and Leelanau Township, where Republican incumbent Michael McMillan will face Democrat Barbara Conley.

That leaves seven incumbent supervisors who are running unopposed for re-election: Marian Werner in Bingham Township, Ronald Schaub in Centerville, Tim Stein in Cleveland, Jeff Shaw in Elmwood, Tom Laureto in Glen Arbor, Greg Julian in Kasson, and Doug Periard in Suttons Bay.

School board shuffles: Across the five public school districts that service different parts of Leelanau County, a combined 16 school board seats are up for grabs on November 5. How competitive those races are, though, varies by district. For Leland Public Schools, for instance, five candidates are running for five open spots; similarly, Northport Public School has two candidates up for two school board seats. At Suttons Bay Public Schools, there are four seats up for grabs and only three candidates.

Things are slightly more contentious at Glen Lake Community Schools (three contenders competing for two spots) and much more contentious at Traverse City Area Public Schools, where a six-person race for three vacant spots has become a full-on ideological battle.

Ballot proposals: It’s nowhere near as busy an election for local ballot proposals as two years ago, when voters considered a zoning amendment referendum related to the controversial Timber Shores RV resort; a tall buildings matter in Traverse City; the first-ever dedicated millage for the Leelanau Township Library; and no fewer than eight millage renewals.

This fall’s ballot proposals include a few more millage renewals (one for TCAPS, one for the Leelanau Township general fund, and one for Leelanau Township’s fire and emergency medical services) and an $8 million bond proposal for Glen Lake Community Schools. The Glen Lake bond is a significantly-scaled-down version of the $36 million proposal the district took to voters last fall, with priorities that include HVAC updates and building remodels. Voters rejected last fall’s proposal 963 votes to 1,119.

A small segment of Leelanau County voters will get to weigh in on a pair of City of Traverse City proposals, which seek to give city residents more say in the future adoption or extension of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plans. Read more about that contentious matter here.