Elections

Image: City Clerk Marie Wicks, courtesy City of East Lansing

The Office of the City Clerk will be open extra hours, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday, October 31, for people who need absentee ballots for next Tuesday’s East Lansing City Council election. You can go in on Saturday to cast an absentee ballot if you cannot vote next Tuesday.

The Clerk’s office will also be open as usual this Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Above: Mayor Nathan Triplett and Councilmember Ruth Beier

Running for re-election to East Lansing's City Council, Mayor Nathan Triplett has been emphasizing success at reducing the City’s debt since he joined Council. In his most recent campaign letter, Triplett says, “During my time on Council, we’ve reduced our city’s debt by nearly 30%.”

This is an update on our report from roughly two weeks ago regarding campaign financing of the six people running for East Lansing’s City Council, because Campaign finance has become a perennial “ask” of ELi’s readers. If this work matters to you, please take a moment to donate to support our work.

What’s new in the last two weeks?

Above: The six candidates for City Council.

With three East Lansing City Council members’ terms ending next month, only two sitting Councilmembers are certain to remain: Ruth Beier and Susan Woods. Asked by ELi this week who they are endorsing in the City Council race, the two split, with no overlap:

Susan Woods is endorsing Shanna Draheim, Jermaine Ruffin, and Nathan Triplett.

Ruth Beier is endorsing Erik Altmann, Mark Meadows, and Steve Ross.

From left to right: Erik Altmann, Shanna Draheim, Mark Meadows, Steve Ross, Jermaine Ruffin and Nathan Triplett

It was a full house for last night’s City Council Candidate Forum at the Hannah Community Center. The event was organized by the League of Women Voters (LWV) of the Lansing Area, and moderated by LWV member Camilla Davis, of Dewitt.

Note: This article was corrected on September 1, 7:45 am, because Steve Ross's press release and statements to me by phone during our interview misrepresented Shanna Draheim as having specifically committed to his particular plan. While Draheim has decided to do early disclosure, she has not specifically agreed to the plan proposed by Ross because of the grassroots nature of her campaign, as noted in her statement below.

East Lansing City Council candidate Jermaine Ruffin has been a resident of East Lansing for over a decade and is a graduate of MSU. Married with three children, Ruffin works as a Placemaking Project Specialist with the State of Michigan with a focus on assisting communities statewide with promoting and leveraging their unique attributes to retain and attract residents.

City Council candidate Mark Meadows is familiar to many East Lansing residents due to his years of public service.

Meadows began his career as an Assistant Attorney General in the Michigan Attorney General's office. During this time, he worked on cases where he represented the Departments of Social Services, Mental Health, Natural Resources and the State Police. He also served in the Environmental Protection Division.

In our continuing series introducing the candidates for City Council, our next candidate is Shanna Draheim. Draheim first lived here as an MSU student, and is now a homeowner living with her husband and three children.