Oakland voters poised to decide on ranked choice voting, marijuana retailers and Southfield clerk

Voters across Oakland County will tackle ballot issues from ranked choice voting to recreational marijuana sales while those in Southfield will pick a new clerk to replace the one who resigned over tampering with voting procedures.

Longtime Southfield resident and Medicare agent Gabi Grossbard, 50, is facing Oakland County Commissioner Janet Jackson for the local clerk's position.

In Royal Oak, voters are set to decide whether they support ranked choice voting, a system in which voters can rank any and all candidates for a given office on their ballot as opposed to selecting only one. Ranked choice voting is also on the ballot Tuesday in East Lansing and Kalamazoo.

Oakland County is piloting the state's new early voting option this week, which allows residents to cast their ballots in person before Election Day in 26 jurisdictions. The pilot program has already begun and voters can cast their ballot at their designated regional site or the county's general site through Sunday. Rochester is also participating in the state's pilot early voting program, separate from the county.

Marijuana is an issue in Rochester, Birmingham and Keego Harbor, where voters will decide whether to permit local marijuana retailers.

In Birmingham, a proposal to lift the ban on marijuana sales and allow one medical marijuana facility and one recreational facility is on the ballot. Another measure in Keego Harbor would allow the City Council to regulate up to one marijuana retailer and prohibit all other forms of marijuana establishments. A separate proposed ordinance would allow three retail adult-use cannabis retail establishments to operate in Rochester.

Ranked choice voting

Royal Oak voters are being asked to abandon traditional voting and adopt a ranked-choice system, where voters can rank all, none, or a portion of candidates for a given office by preference on their ballots.

If one candidate wins a majority of first place votes, a winner is automatically declared, similar to traditional voting. If no candidate has more than 50% of the first place votes, the candidate with the fewest first place votes is eliminated. The second place votes of those ballots are recounted as first-place votes, and the process continues until one candidate has over 50%.

Organizers argued it is a better approach, especially in races with many candidates.

"There are just a lot of elections where people win with much less than 50% of the vote," said Ron Zimmerman, Director of Rank MI Vote, the organization campaigning for ranked-choice voting in Michigan. "And that really disenfranchises a lot of demographics in those cities."

In order for ranked choice voting to take effect, the State Bureau of Elections would have to certify the process, Zimmerman said. Since ranked choice voting is not a currently certified method in Michigan, East Lansing Clerk Marie Wicks confirmed, it wouldn't have an immediate impact on elections if the measures in Royal Oak, East Lansing or Kalamazoo are approved.

Hardmon, Cheri (MDOS) HardmonC@michigan.govSent: Thursday, November 2, 2023 7:28:55 PMTo: Mackay, Hannah HMackay@detroitnews.comSubject: Ranked Choice Voting

Ranked choice voting has "multiple conflicts with Michigan Election Law," so the Legislature would need to change the law to accommodate ranked choice voting, said Cheri Hardmon, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Ranked choice voting eliminates split voting so that extremist candidates are elected less frequently, and changes how candidates run their campaigns, Zimmerman said.

"This is a better way to elect our officials and get rid of extreme candidates and reduce split voting," Zimmerman said.

Signs have popped up in Royal Oak yards against what they call "rigged choice voting," and a Michigan group by the same name has a website arguing against the practice. It is unclear who the organizers behind the Michigan website are.

The site argued that ranked choice voting violates the principle of one person, one vote by valuing some votes more than others. The process is complicated and causes voter confusion, which has led to lower turnout in cities with the practice, according to the Michigan website.

Ranked choice voting also leads to processing delays, meaning winners aren't known on Election Day, according to the Rigger Choice Voting site.

"Depending on the number of candidates, they may not even be available Election week," according to the site. "Pierce County, in Washington state, experimented with ranked choice voting in 2006. By 2008, it returned to the former system."

Royal Oak resident Barb Bolton said she plans to vote in favor of ranked-choice voting.

"I just think it's an opportunity to better serve our community. ... This just seems like a more equitable way to have people elected," Bolton said.

Southfield clerk

Then Southfield City Clerk Sherikia Hawkins resigned in October 2022 after pleading no contest to election-related charges, including fraudulently altering the Qualified Voter File in 2018 to void absentee ballots. Southfield is the third largest city in Oakland County and traditionally a Democratic stronghold.

Jackson carried the four-candidate August primary election with 66% of the vote while Grossbard finished second with 14.5%.

Grossbard said he wants to restore the reputation of the City Clerk's office, damaged by the charges brought against Hawkins. Election integrity has been in the national spotlight since 2020, highlighting the need for transparency, he said.

"It is vital to run a clerk's office that oversees elections flawlessly," Grossbard said. "People don't question what they can see and what they can understand. ... I intend to run the clerk's office in a manner that is open and transparent and obvious and by the book."

While Grossbard does not have any prior experience as a clerk, he said running his own business has prepared him well for the office.

Jackson, who has been a county commissioner for 14 years and works as an administrator with AT&T, said her background as a public servant is her most important qualification to be city clerk.

She said she doesn't think the Southfield community lost faith in the clerk's office after Hawkins resigned.

"I think that our residents have faith in the office to operate because it always has been efficiently run. It's just that she made an error," Jackson said.

If elected, she said her top priorities would be running the 2024 presidential election efficiently, incorporating new changes, including early voting and a greater demand for voting by absentee ballot, and maintaining high service standards.

"I just want to make sure that we keep up our standards of exemplary service to our residents," Jackson said. "Also, community engagement and representation, I feel, is very important, and young people need to get more involved in the … electoral and political process."

Ten-year Southfield resident Frank Davis, 58, said he's not sure for whom he will vote for in Tuesday's election, but efficiency is the most important quality for a clerk.

"The way she (Hawkins) resigned, it was disappointing," Davis said.

hmackay@detroitnews.com