I’m deeply disappointed after reading the Orion Township Board of Trustees’ minutes for June 20th.
Trustees failed to stand up for the rights of township residents to count their own votes. Instead of keeping the responsibility for counting township absentee ballots here in Orion, Clerk (Penny) Shults put forward a resolution to move the counting from here to Pontiac.
And Treasurer Donni Steele is now asking you to vote to trust her judgment and elect her to the Michigan House for District 54?
Giving away power and control makes no sense. Whether you feel past elections have been run fairly or not, it costs next to nothing to count a few thousand absentee votes locally.
Several residents attempting to sign up future poll workers were run out of Township Hall and into the cold and rain at the Grand Opening on Feb. 1 rather than being warmly welcomed by township officials.
Call Clerk Shults, Treasurer Steele and the rest of the Orion Township Board of Trustees to let them know you want this agreement with the county canceled now.
While it may be too late for the August primary, the November ballots will remain here if residents demand it.
That’s what we recently did in Brandon Township. And we were successful.

Jay R. Taylor
Oxford

Editor’s Note: Those individuals seeking to get signatures were outside of the Orion Twp. Municipal Complex. Treasurer Donni Steele confirmed she did not know they were gathering signatures at the time, and that she was not the one who asked them to step out of the open house festivities.