ASK ELi: How Will This Council Election Work?

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Friday, July 31, 2015, 2:00 am
By: 
Alice Dreger

A reader asks: How will this year’s City Council election work on Tuesday, November 3?

The basics: The East Lansing City Council has five members in total. Each serves for a four-year term.

The terms of three Councilmembers are ending in November: Mayor Nathan Triplett, Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris, and Councilmember Kathy Boyle. (Boyle will not have served a full four years because she was chosen by Council to replace Don Power when he resigned shortly into his term.)

There are therefore three seats up for grabs. There are currently six people running for those three seats:

  • Erik Altmann
  • Shanna Draheim
  • Mark S. Meadows
  • Steve Ross
  • Jermaine Ruffin
  • Nathan Triplett

The top three vote-getters will win the seats. There is no run-off.

All Councilmembers are elected “at large,” meaning each is elected to represent the whole city, not some particular precinct or neighborhood.

The office is technically non-partisan. This means candidates do not list a party affiliation on the ballot. In practice, it is common for candidates to try to obtain endorsements from prominent local members of the big parties, particularly the Democratic Party. (East Lansing traditionally votes heavily Democrat in elections.)

How the mayor and mayor pro tem are chosen: An election for Council marks the end of the term of a seated mayor and mayor pro tem.  At the first regular meeting of Council following the election, the Council elects who among them will serve as the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem by a simple majority of Council (three or more votes by Council). Councilmembers can vote for themselves.

So for Mayor Triplett to be re-elected mayor, he would have to win the general election and then also be re-elected mayor by the Council.

According to the City Charter, the mayor “shall be recognized as the chief executive of the City. He or she shall not have any veto power….He or she shall exercise only such powers as this Charter, other law, or the Council shall specifically confer upon or require of him or her, including the powers of a Mayor to suppress riots and disorderly conduct as provided by law.”

The Mayor Pro Tem fills in for the Mayor when, “on account of absence from the City, disability, or otherwise, the Mayor is unable to perform the duties of his or her office.”

What else might you want to know as a voter? Traditionally name recognition has mattered a lot in East Lansing elections. This is evidenced by Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris’s last election, wherein she took in no funds and spent no funds on her campaign but won reelection.

Traditionally, successful candidates do a lot of door-knocking.

Voters can check out the Ingham County elections website to look at filings related to candidates’ campaigns. (Click here and choose “public login.”) Because it can be challenging to make sense of the unsearchable PDFs there, ELi will provide updates on what the candidates’ filings show, including in terms of campaign finance.

Keep in mind, however, that if a candidate does not file the forms showing all contributions until after the election, it becomes impossible for voters to know who funded that person’s campaign until after the election. This has happened, as we reported in our series on the funding of current council members: Ruth Beier, Kathy Boyle, Diane Goddeeris, Nathan Triplett, and Susan Woods. (Comparative overview provided here.)

Who can vote: To vote, you have to be a registered voter in the City of East Lansing. The City’s website provides information on how to register to vote in person or absentee.

 

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