By Kaitlyn Skrzypczak, Editor-in-Chief.
Voters from Midland, Bay and Saginaw county will have the opportunity this election season to choose new members for the Delta College Board of Trustees. Voters, however, will notice that no names are on the Nov. 4 ballot for the Bay County seat. The July 15 filing deadline passed with no applications for the seat.
Three people are now running as write-in candidates for the Bay County Board of Trustees seat: Charin Davenport of Bay City, Diane Middleton of Bay City and John Wright of Essexville.
According to Bay County Clerk Cynthia Luczak, there are three criteria that citizens have to meet to be eligible as a candidate. Candidates must be a U.S. citizen, 18 years of age or older and must live in Bay County and be a registered to vote for at least 30 days.
The deadline to file as a write-in candidate is Oct. 24 by 4 p.m. Candidates must file a “Declaration of Intent” with the Saginaw County Clerk Susan Kaltenbach. “Even though it’s a tri-county district for a community college, Saginaw County has the biggest population of residents in their county so they are the filing official,” said Luczak.
When voting for a write-in candidate voters must be careful to spell the candidates name correctly, or as close as possible. Write-ins are not allowed to use a nickname. “We take variations of the name. The one lady’s name is Diane… Although we want voters to be knowledgeable enough to get the correct spelling of the name, there are many ways to spell Diane,” said Luczak.
Voters will have the opportunity to vote on candidates in all three counties. Michael Nash and Mary Morrissey are running from Midland County. Nash has served on the Board since Sept. 2013. Karen Lawrence-Webster is running from Saginaw County and served two consecutive terms on the Board since Nov. 2002. All running are seeking 6-year terms, except Morrissey, who is running for a 4-year partial term.