LANSING, Mich. — Michigan voters will find plenty of blank spaces on the Nov. 3 ballot. At least 478 local races across the state have either no candidate or fewer candidates than open seats, a review of ballots statewide shows.
That puts close to one in 10 local elected posts up this fall, out of more than 5,400, at risk of sitting empty. The gaps reach every corner of the state but fall hardest on rural areas.
School boards top the list. Some 145 school board seats have no one running, roughly a third of all the unfilled races. Village boards account for another 151 seats, and 29 library board posts are also uncontested and empty. Fifteen of Michigan’s 252 villages have nobody running for village president, at least two cities have no mayoral candidate, 10 townships lack a candidate for clerk and four have no one seeking treasurer, the office that collects local taxes.
The pay helps explain it. Michigan has at least 14,500 elected local government jobs across townships, villages, cities and school districts, and most are part-time. In small rural communities, many pay less than $10,000 a year, some trustees earn as little as $50 per meeting, and many school and library board members are not paid at all. Township clerks, who run elections, have also taken on more work since voters amended the state constitution to add days of voting.
Local officials have been warning about the trend. In a statewide survey run by a University of Michigan policy center, leaders from 77% of Michigan jurisdictions agreed that too few residents are willing to run for local office, and 75% said races there often go uncontested. Concern was strongest in small places: 51% of village leaders and 45% of township leaders strongly agreed, compared with 34% of city leaders and 19% of county leaders.
That survey drew responses from 1,328 of the state’s 1,856 general-purpose local governments.
When no one runs, city, township and village boards may appoint someone to fill the seat after the election. If they cannot, the office goes back on the ballot at the next regular election.
Bills in the Legislature aimed at easing the strain have not moved. One package would set aside $3.5 million for shared finance, human resources and technology help for small governments, and another would let a township with a vacant clerk post hire a certified election administrator who lives elsewhere.
Section: More Lansing MI politics news
Filed under: Lansing MI Politics News
