Clinton Township board buys election tech

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — The topic of elections was high on the minds of Clinton Township trustees in early October, especially with the Board of Trustees voting to buy new election software and equipment at its Oct. 2 meeting.

Developed by Minnesota-based Modus Elections Software, the products purchased by the township are focused on streamlining and easing the setup and tracking of election workers and equipment.

“Elections planning and implementation has always been a huge undertaking. However, with the implementation of Proposition 2018-3 and 2022-2, execution of elections is an even grander operation,” Township Clerk Kim Meltzer said. “Clinton Township is the largest township in the state of Michigan and our (number of) registered voters exceeds 81,000. In fact, Clinton Township is more populated than 62 of the 83 Michigan counties. Only some of the list of responsibilities include scheduling workers, provide interactive training, mail, email and text communication for our 400-plus workers; establish and monitor political party balance, payroll, inventory management for equipment and supplies; coordination and tracking of assets like our tabulators; electronic poll books; voter-assist terminals; and ballots.”

The Modus software will help with managing election workers and polling places, providing online portals and training for election workers and radio frequency identification tags for equipment. Meltzer says the RFID tags will help improve election accountability by providing a trail for where each piece of tagged equipment was moved.

“We can know where the tabulators are located, where the electronic poll books are, where the ballots are,” Meltzer said. “All of those things are very important in terms of knowing where everything is at that time, creating a chain of custody, and that’s what the people have asked for and that’s what this software will help implement.”

Modus’ software and equipment will cost the township $32,000 for initial setup and $20,000 for annual maintenance.

Beyond technology, the board assigned trustee Julie Matuzak to fill Joie West’s vacant seat on the Election Commission. According to the township’s website, the Election Commission’s duties include establishing voting precincts, assessing equipment needs and appointing at least three inspectors per precinct. Matuzak joins Meltzer and fellow Trustee Tammy Patton on the commission.

 

Restaurant development
Trustees also approved a special land use application for a restaurant at 24276 Hall Road. Based around a lot where there is currently a bank building, the plans call for downsizing the bank to a single drive-thru lane and building a Chipotle restaurant on the eastern side of the lot. Additional entrance and exit routes to Hall Road will be constructed.

Having two drive-thru lanes in such a small space was a concern for one resident in attendance, though the plan received approval from the Planning Commission. The resident’s concerns were picked up by Trustee Mike Keys, who asked what kind of consideration was given to the site. Patton, who is on the Planning Commission, said the mechanics of the restaurant allowed it to obtain its variance.

“It’s a pick-up lane; you order ahead of time,” Patton said. “This is different in consideration to your Groesbeck one, so that’s why it still was able to pass that variance. It’s not everybody parking, going in and ordering. It’s more of a drive-thru method.”

Buffer reductions on the site to include more parking space were approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals.