Steadfast candidates seek write-in votes
Plymouth Township Clerk Nancy Conzelman
Jun. 25, 2016 PLYMOUTH VOICE.
Plymouth Michigan News
“The two erred, according to the court filings, by not filling in the township voting precinct number in which they reside…when filing their election paperwork with Township Clerk Nancy Conzelman.”
A three-panel appeals court has reversed the decision of a Wayne County Circuit Court judge and removed the names of two Plymouth Township candidates from the ballot.
The names of Kurt Heise, a candidate for township supervisor, and Don Schnettler, a candidate for trustee, will not appear on the Aug. 2 primary election ballot in the township following the decision of the court panel last week. The decision came following a court appeal by attorneys for Carl Berry, a local political activist and avowed supporter of incumbent Supervisor Shannon Price. Berry filed the original lawsuit
last month seeking to have the two names removed. In Berry’s 50-page court filings, his attorneys alleged that Schnettler and Heise did not accurately complete the affidavits of identity when filing their election paperwork with Township Clerk Nancy Conzelman. The two erred, according to the court filings, by not filling in the township voting precinct number in which they reside.
Heise said last week that he will mount a vigorous write-in campaign to keep his attempts to unseat Price viable. He has already posted an informational item on his website showing voters how to write his name in on the Aug 2 ballot.
“What I’m hearing loud and clear is that Plymouth Township will not have this election stolen by outsider lawyers, political consultants and dark money PACs,” Heise said on his website entry.
Berry’s 50-page lawsuit to disqualify Heise and Schnettler was funded by the Faith and Freedom coalition and Berry said that he had no idea of the cost of the suit filed by attorney Robert Huth Jr. of Kirk, Huth, Land and Badalement.
Heise said he is going to launch a voter education campaign and is preparing instructional flyers to tell voters exactly how to fill out the ballot. “Voters are smart and they are motivated,” Heise, now term-limited in the House of Representatives said. “We are going to take this back to the people.”
Heise added that he feels people are “fed-up” with the political maneuverings of Price, appointed to the job in April of 2015 over the protests of many residents. He said that he anticipates voter backlash to these tactics “and there is going to be serious change.”
A Facebook page indicated last week that Schnettler, one of 10 candidates seeking four trustee positions, will also attempt a write-in campaign.
The candidates are all scheduled to speak at a forum sponsored by the League of Women voters of Northwest Wayne County at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 30, at the Plymouth District Library.
A league moderator will present written questions from the audience to the candidates for trustee, treasurer, clerk and supervisor who will then have a minute to answer and a minute to summarize their candidacy at the close of the session.
Plymouth Voice.
Photo: © Don Howard / Associated Newspapers
