Scott Chabot announced guests and visitors. Julie Matuzak, Macomb Commissioner for Clinton Township, was the guest of the club as the meeting’s speaker. 

 

Ed Mastry selected songs “Keep Your Sunny Side Up” and “All Hail to Rotary.”

 

Sunshine
None

 

Goodwill
Mary Ann Hosey announced that her daughter, Kelly, is in labor with twins and the family members are awaiting the news on the delivery.

 

 

Tom Davies rounded out the month of October with recognition. Larry Neal was fined $1 for giving a “tearful” story of how he wished his mother could have been part of the North Branch Library opening; Gary Phelps was fined by requesting President Jeff Furest to move during “The Four-Way Test”; Mary Ann Hosey was fined $4.99 for not being at the hospital with her daughter and for being a MSU Spartan fan; Julie Huttenlocher was fined a total of $5 for being the most-missed Rotarian and for her letting on about her son’s recent job offer and her excessive travel; Julie Miller was fined $1 for her support of the MSU Spartans; Ed Mastry was fined $4.99 for not reporting the news of his granddaughter’s accomplishments in her freshman season of high school volleyball and the number of wine glasses he had for the lunch meeting; Stephanie Mirabile was fined $2 for being the best-dressed Rotarian; Christine LaTour was fined $2 for having a CPA’s “control sheet” in a Rotary lunch meeting; all of the “Kims” were fined $1 for creating confusion at the meeting; Glenn Burton was fined for being the “GQ” of Grosse Pointe in some recent local photos; and all participants not watching the U of M/MSU game were fined $1.

 

 

 

Ms. Matuzak’s career before joining the Macomb County Board of Commissioners was still focused on public service, addressing issues such as: wages and benefits, the right to organize, access to educational opportunities and securing long-term retirement benefits for individuals. She was able to work on these issues through her positions as congressional aide for former Congressman David Bonior, Executive Director of the local Democratic Party, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center for Racial Justice (ICRJ) and the Political Coordinator/Editor for the American Federation of Teachers – Michigan (AFT-MI).

 

Ms. Matuzak’s presentation was focused on how the State Board of Canvassers handle elections in the State of Michigan. This Board is bipartisan, comprised of two Democratic appointees and two Republican appointees that serve four-year terms with the task of certifying elections, recounting elections, reviewing petitions/referendums and approve voting equipment.  A majority of three votes must be passed by the State Board of Canvassers to certify elections and approve all of the above-mentioned tasks.

 

Individual counties also have their own canvasser boards as an additional safeguard in the election review process. Involving 83 county clerks, 280 city clerks and 1,240 township clerks, Michigan's elections system is administered by 1,603 county and local election officials making it the most decentralized elections system in the nation.

 

Nominating petitions are reviewed by the state canvassing board. Michigan is one of the unique states where the people have the right to propose laws and to enact and reject laws by initiative and can approve or reject laws passed by legislature by a referendum.  These petitions take approximately 340,000 certifiable signatures to approve. Petitions can also be prepared to amend the constitution and take approximately 500,000 certifiable signatures to approve. Recall petitions must be found to be grammatically clear, factual and include a well-defined course of action in order to be found acceptable by the State Board of Canvassers.

 

Recent petitions that have been submitted include:
Unlock 1 Petition – Repealing of emergency powers of the Governor
Unlock 2 Petition – Limits local Health Departments to 28 days to issue emergency orders.  Local County Commissions would be responsible to extend emergency orders beyond 28 days.
Petition to change how presidential electors are selected. Electors would be decided by the popular vote of the country and not by the State.

 

All voting equipment used in the public elections are reviewed by State Canvassing Board. Currentlythree approved vendors for voting equipment. All voting equipment must be accessible to people of all disabilities, must process paper ballots and not be connected to the Internet.  Ms. Matuzak emphasized there is much misinformation being spread about the integrity of the election process. There are indeed a number of checks and balances in the system to identify any mistakes made in the process and those are vetted prior to final certification of any election.