IONIA, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – On Thursday, Ionia County’s Board of Canvassers conducted a recount of votes from Keene Township’s Special Election, certifying the results that two freshman Township Board members had been voted into office.
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After a second recall effort for Keene Township Supervisor and Treasurer, the two former offices held by Robert Simpson and Kara Albert will be occupied by Bob Schafer and Taylor Lewis, respectively.
The preliminary voting results were confirmed yesterday as accurate after a recount of the Treasurer ballots was conducted, certifying that Lewis was victorious 304 to only 302 votes and Schafer triumphed 316 votes to 302 votes.
Both of the newly elected members of the board are freshman when it comes to public office, but have high hopes for the future.
“I was fortunate to attend Michigan State University, where I studied business,” Lewis said in an email to Michigan News Source. “I currently have a full time job on a very highly collaborative team that trains new employees. The combination of my education and career path has given me well-rounded experience in technology, finance, and most importantly, people. Although I haven’t run for office, I feel prepared to take on this new position.”
Schafer also expressed his hopes that the township would find this “refreshing” and that his other previous experiences have been good preparation for this new role.
“I have experience writing legislation and was part of a group that successfully worked several adoption-related bills through the legislative process to become Michigan laws,” Schafer said in an email to Michigan News Source. “This process involved a great deal of collaboration and solution-finding efforts while working with groups of people having quite different visions.”
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Schafer also spoke with Michigan News Source to discuss some of the priorities he and Lewis have for the board and future of the township, including updating the website to be more interactive.
“I will say that we have made campaign commitments to do a survey of the township,” he said, “We’re going to try and get some more technology in the Township Hall and doing a livestream would be a helpful thing we think.”
Schafer also mentioned that transparency is important going forward, and recognized that there may be some differing opinions on the board.
“There will be some differences of opinion, and that’s healthy; if everyone were of the same mindset I’d be worried,” he said, “I think there will be an opportunity to have mostly a really good relationship and we’ll have to find those places where we agree to disagree and it’ll be a good exercise for all of us.”
Lewis also discussed the opportunity that the township has in the future and her hopes for a “bright future for Keene.”
“I want to take this as an opportunity to thank our community for taking the time to listen and to those that have spent hours upon hours to support us and try and make a change here at Keene,” Lewis said in an email to Michigan News Source, “I hope for positivity moving forward, that we can move past this as a stronger community.”
The pair will be sworn in at the county clerk house Monday morning, ahead of the regularly scheduled May Township Board Meeting Tuesday night.
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