Appointment means SOS will not be nonpartisan

We are learning why Republican career politician and Secretary of State-Elect Ruth Johnson refused to take an Oath of Nonpartisanship during the election like Democratic candidate Jocelyn Benson did.

As my friends at Living Blue pointed out, Johnson - the state’s elections administrator - hired Hartland Township resident Allan Filip as the SOS’s “director of external affairs.” County residents will remember Filip as the former chair of the Livingston County Republican Party.

In the two years he was the chair, he was, perhaps, one of the most partisan chairs the party ever had. Under his “leadership,” he attempted to politicize nonpartisan elections, improperly tried to influence a bond issue and made a false accusation that the county Democrats carried signs depicting “hate speech” in the Melonfest parade.

That sorry performance earned him a promotion to the Michigan Republican Party in 2009 where he was named as the “director of field operations.”
It appears his role with the SOS is just one more partisan job.

Land’s action in the 20th District is the reason the SOS should take nonpartisan pledge already taken by Benson

The situation in the 20th Senate District following the tragic death of Democratic candidate Rep. Robert Jones, D-Kalamazoo, is why Michigan needs a Secretary of State like law professor Jocelyn Benson, who has taken an oath to the citizens to operate the office in a neutral and nonpartisan fashion.
Jones lost a battle with cancer on Oct. 17 after many people had already cast absentee ballots, and under state law a vote cannot be counted for a deceased candidate. Votes will be counted for the Republican candidate, but votes for Jones will not be counted as going to the replacement for Jones, Bobby Hopewell. Jones appeared to be winning a seat that is currently held by a Republican.

Not only that, it appears that an absentee ballot cast by a voter who votes straight Democratic Party will just be thrown out, and it will not be counted for the other candidates on the ballot as well as for Jones.

An estimated 8,000 of the 16,000 absentee ballots issued in the race before Jones’ death last Sunday have been returned to date, and absentee voters, whether they turned in their ballots or not, may request a replacement ballot.

According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, “some clerks, including in Comstock and Oshtemo townships, wanted to send a notice to voters who received an absentee ballot of this option,” but super-partisan Republican Secretary of State Terri Land has refused to allow local clerks to send such a letter as a public service to make sure their voters are counted.

There is nothing in Michigan election law to bar local clerks from undertaking such a public service to make sure voters have their vote count, but Land, who has a long history of partisanship, is barring them from doing it.

Land played politics with the closing of branch offices in Democratic districts in 2007, throwing up a roadblock to putting Lance Enderle on the ballot as the Democratic nominee for the 8th Congressional District and Land has gone after Democrats who allegedly violate campaign finance laws but ignores Republican violators.
To fulfill the oath that Benson took and the Republican candidate refuses to take, Benson will not co-chair any campaigns or endorse any candidates running in elections where she will serve as the final certifier of results.

Too bad Land didn’t take such as oath.

SOS candidate wants to make it harder for people to vote

Common sense says the primary job and responsibility of the Michigan Secretary of State is to ensure the ease and security of elections. Somebody better tell that to Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, one of the GOP candidates for Secretary of State.

In a mass email touting her endorsement by RNC committee person Holly Hughes, McManus says she “has stood up against proposals like no-reason absentee voting, pre-registration of 16-year-olds and early voting.” In other words, she opposes every measure to make it easier to vote and increase voter turnout.

Those commons sense measures were approved by the House this year, but the GOP-controlled Senate refuses to take them up. However, current Republican Secretary of State Terri Land supports those measures. In fact, Land – who is also a Republican caudate for Lt. Governor in 2010 - told the House Committee on Ethics and Elections in June that she would help move the bills to the Senate floor for a vote.

No-reason absentee voting has widespread support, and those supporting it include The Michigan Election Reform Alliance, The Michigan Election Coalition, The League of Women Voters, The Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, The Michigan Municipal League, The Michigan Campaign Finance Network, The Michigan Association of County Clerks, The Michigan Townships Association, Common Cause Michigan and The Michigan Nonprofit Association.

I guess McManus is not concerned about getting the endorsement of groups like The Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks or The Michigan Association of County Clerks.

Because the nomination for SOS comes at the party convention, McManus has to play to the GOP base, which has taken an extreme right turn, and she threw them some red meat with this ditty: “As a state Senator, Michelle has been the firewall against legislation tailor-made to make it easier for groups like ACORN and Moveon.org to manipulate our elections.”

First, when has ACORN and Moveon.org ever manipulated any election? I know ACORN is the biggest boogyman for right-wingers, and they have been accused of every crime under the sun. But what they are really guilty of and why the right hates them so much is because they register poor people to vote.

It’s funny that the reason Land gives for registering 16-year-olds: because she says it’s much better than registering them to vote when age 18 by outside groups, but in her endorsement, Hughes claims McManus has the “right experience to build on the success of the Land and Miller legacies.”

Apparently not.

Livingston County GOP violates campaign finance law while SOS Land turns a blind eye

The Livingston County Republican Party is in violation of Michigan Campaign Finance Law by failing to turn in its required Pre-General Election Campaign Finance Report before the Oct. 27 deadline. To date, it has not filed the report at all.

This clear violation comes to light just days after state Rep. LaMar Lemmons III (D-Detroit) was found guilty of failing to file campaign-finance statements on time by a jury and ordered to pay $1,095 in fines and fees. Another Democrat, Rep. Alexander Lipsey, is facing similar charges. Lemmons was charged with failing to file four required statements, including the very same one the county Republican Party failed to file, the pre-general election statement. Lemmons is the first known lawmaker convicted of not turning in his campaign finance reports into the Secretary of State through a computer program. This only could have happened under Republican Terry Land.

The Republican Secretary of State and Attorney General chose to prosecute the two Detroit Democrats, yet they let the county GOP walk free.

This is a clear case of selective prosecution.

The real interesting thing is if you look at the report they actually got in on time: the post-general election report on Dec. 7. You will recall how the county GOP tried to make a mockery of the nonpartisan judicial races this past election with their disgusting questionnaire to take the unprecedented step of endorsing in those nonpartisan races.

The questionnaire that was circulated and then pulled when the local newspaper blew the whistle about its contents had the candidates list how much money they contributed to Republican candidates. Apparently, there was a method to their sleaziness because every judicial candidate contributed to the Livingston County GOP in an attempt to apparently buy that endorsement.

District Court candidate Jay Drick, a member of the party’s executive committee who lost in a landslide, was the apparent winner by forking over $2,475. It kind of paid off too. The county party only made one contribution during the entire reporting period. Guess to who.

If you guessed the Committee to Elect Jay Drick then you are a winner, but the citizens of Livingston County are the real losers.