2012 City Election : Precinct Votes Combining "In Person" and "Absentee" Ballots. Pairs Part 1 and Part 2.

Where the candidates votes came from.

With "absentee" and "in person" vote totals combined. 

All the candidates  including "Write-in" did  their best in  Precinct 1.Sarah McClure was top voter in Precinct 1 with 408 votes. John Monaghan  was the runner up in  with 330 votes. Michael Dul was third with 324.


McClure also topped Precinct 2 with 252 votes. Dul was second with 237. and Monagam third with 192.


Connie Salloum was a distant 4th place finisher in both Precincts and Mark Kapel  a very distant 5th place finisher in both Precincts.


Pairs 1:Of note is the vote totals of John Monaghan and Michael Dul in Precinct 1 which are six votes shy of being identical. The concept of a pair or a running mate is based on the fact two commission seats were open and therefore each ballot allowed  two votes for the two commission seats available. If  Michael Dul or John Monahan ran by himself, then a potential vote may have been  left over to wind up in the total of  a competing candidate like Sarah McClure. With Monaghan and Dul both in the race it was believed that all like minded votes would stay with like minded candidates. 


In thc case of Monaghan and Dul it is believed that both Candidates drew votes  from a massive on line-e mail campaign which urged a joint Monahan Dul vote. Did it work ? Yes because it may have elected  "one team member" to City Commission. No because the six vote Dul Monaghan difference   in Precinct 1 became a 45 vote gap in Precinct 2. Neither  candidate could come close to McClure in Precinct 1. Dul missed by 104 votes. Monaghan by 78. In Precinct 2 Dul lost to McClure by a mere 15 votes.Monaghan lost by 60.
Would a massive on line-e mail campaign for just one candidate have succeeded  in making either Dul or Monaghan the top voter (a distinction of no particular political value aside from prestige) Maybe.


Pairs 2: Sarah McClure and Connie Salloum  were also pairs of  a sort. They served on City Commission together and appeared  together on direct mail campaign pieces.Yet in both precincts McClure was always first and Salloum fourth. McClure with the best vote count of any of the candidates did not seem to be pulling Salloum along. By the same token it is possible that Salloums's  votes were sending McClure's into warp drive . Where else would they go go ? And Where did the other half of McClure's two votes go if they didn't go to Salloum ? To Monaghan and Dull ? Not likely. To Kapel ? Not very many. Or did they go nowhere at all ?




Part of the attraction of Pairs in 2012 was that of an Instant New World Order.


If McClure and Salloum were elected the City Commission of the Mike( Zambricki) and Mike(McCready) would continue  into a third year with a 4 to1 Majority.


If Dul and Monaghan were elected to join Mike and Mike and dissident Pat Hardy a new 3-2 to Majority would  rule City Commission.

2012 City Election The Big Picture

This an artist's rendering of the City precinct map.
Extra credit if you can convince a friend
or neighbor that it as early Jackson Pollock.

What do you see when you see this picture? Clue: it is not a Picasso. It is not something that an optimist will see one way and a pessimist another.  Clue Number Two: the rectangular shape is a dead give away. More clues.The colors are significant as is the up and down line but it is not a graph, or a mountain. Would you believe Vaughn Road intersecting with Long Lake, crossing  over to and then descending on Woodward ?

Well that is exactly what it is. The rectangle is of course the City of Bloomfield Hills.Note where Woodward ends ( in real life it really doesn't end but here it does because it ceases to  a be a boundary) and the little squiggly line that goes right,  starts at the Boulder Lane on the left and the Windemere-Kirkwood Ct Condominiums on  the right.The line  continues in an irregular shape as it skirts the lakes abutting the properties on Warrington Road before running to the City Limits less than an eight of a mile away. The yellow portion is Precinct One which votes at the City Hall Fire Station. The pink portion is Precinct Two which votes at of all things the Congregational Church or Birmingham which is actually at the corner of Cranbrook Road and Woodward.. If you amaze  a friend or neighbor with all of the above their first question is always "What's with bulge ? The bulge is Cranbrook, which is the largest property owner in the City. Lots of Land.  Few for the real estate adults registered to vote.The Northern precinct which abuts on the city's North, West and East side is even with Cranbrook bulge larger than the south.

This the real deal when it comes to Precinct Maps. You can find it on the City's web site under front desk >maps. The little dots that look like ants are really street addresses when you look closer 

We start our election coverage here because  as the five City Commission candidates began  their election day odyssey in  downtown Oz, a few but not too many, took  the opportunity  to contemplate the mysteries of the Universe. Because of it's proximity and immediate relevance the weird shape of the City's  precincts came to mind. You would think precincts would be square wouldn't  you ? Especially in the City of Bloomfield Hills which is a two by two and a half  mile rectangle. But then there is Cranbrook. and in lieu of a map,  imagining an imaginary intersection of Vaughn and Woodward works  in all but the most extreme cases. At the very least it will see you through the day. If you can't imagine just make like you are  praying. Anything inside your arms and hands pressed together is Precinct 2. Outside that everything is Precinct 1.Heading south on Woodward  all uncertainty ends at the real corner of Windemere (which excepting  an  uninhabited double back to avoid running through the middle of pint sized lakes) means that everything to South, West, or East is  Precinct 2. Clear ?

For the commission candidates it was not that they lacked knowledge of  the City but that they knew it all too well. Barbara Lane  in the North Precinct ?  Preposterous ! It's on Woodward south of The Cranbrook main entrance. You say Ridgewood Road which is literally on the other side of town and runs southwest  of Cranbrook all the way to Lahser is also in Precinct 1 ? You are putting me on !

For the five who desired elected status, a day of odd but interesting developments where knowledge was not always power, was about to unfold and be defined by numbers. Lots of numbers.

Commissioner Sarah McClure wins every category in re-election bid. Michael Dul a surprise second. School Bond Passes by 61% in district. By seven votes in City.

Sarah H. McClure was the overwhelming in winner in Tuesday's  City Election. Her 660 vote total beat that of her closest rival Michael J. Dul by 99 votes. Her 2012 vote compares favorably to the 721 votes she received in 2010. While the total this year is slightly smaller when  one factors in five candidates in 2012 compared to four in 2010 and a  mean spirited characterization  in an area publication that after citing her many accomplishments, claimed her personality was somewhere between a mad micro manager and  that of Cruella Deville.

Michael J. Dul, the presumed junior member in a John Monaghan-Dul ticket, was a surprise second place finisher.  In 2009 Dul was a Mayor Zambricki appointment to  fill a vacancy on the Planning Commission. In 2010 when Dul’s   term of office ended in 2010, then Mayor McCready chose not to  renew it and instead appointed  fellow 2012 candidate Connie Salloum to the Planning Commission in Dul's place.  

In late 2011 Dul was known primarily as someone who prompted the Planning Commission to pull the plug  on  long winded Power Point Presentations  about the Tree ordnance. Like the Iceberg that sank the Titanic however most of Dul’s political punch lay below the surface. He was vice Chairman of Preservation Bloomfield.  He also was very persuasive. His precinct skills (getting people to go the polls and vote for you on Election Day) trailed incumbent Sarah McClure by only four votes. 

The election returns above, the the first available are  posted on the City Hall web site.  For complete behind the scenes election coverage in detail which   look for more details in up coming post.

May 8, 2012 – ELECTION DAY

REGISTERED VOTERS IN THE CITY OF BLOOMFIELD HILLS WILL BE GOING TO THE POLLS ON TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2012 TO CAST THEIR VOTES ON THE FOLLOWING:

Citywide: City Commissioner – Vote for two (Two year term)

Bloomfield Hills School District: School Bond Proposal

Shall Bloomfield Hills Schools, Oakland County, Michigan, borrow the sum of not to exceed Fifty-Eight Million Six Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($58,650,000) and issue its general obligation unlimited tax bonds in one or more series therefor, for the purpose of: erecting, furnishing and equipping a high school, which will require utilizing, remodeling, refurnishing and reequipping portions of the existing Andover High School; acquiring and installing educational technology; erecting, furnishing, equipping and improving performing arts facilities and athletic facilities and fields; and preparing, developing and improving sites? The following is for informational purposes only: The estimated simple average annual millage anticipated to be required to retire this bond debt is 1.16 mills ($1.16 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation). The estimated millage that will be levied for the proposed bonds in 2014 is ..63 mill ($0.63 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation). The maximum number of years the bonds may be outstanding, exclusive of any refunding, is twenty-six (26) years.(Pursuant to State law, expenditure of bond proceeds must be audited and the proceeds cannot be used for repair or maintenance costs, teacher, administrator or employee salaries, or other operating expenses.)

ATTENTION:

NEW TECHNOLOGY IN POLLING LOCATIONS ON ELECTION DAY

Voters in the City of Bloomfield Hills will notice an exciting change at the polling locations on Election Day. Election workers will be using laptops to check in voters using the Electronic Poll Book (EPB) system. The EPB system has been implemented with great success across the State in various communities over the last 3 years. With the laptop method, voters won’t have to divide into alphabetical lines based on your last name to receive a ballot. Two election workers will be searching for a voter on the laptop and issuing the voter a ballot. Voted ballots will continue to be processed and counted in the same manner, only the voter check-in process will be modified. We appreciate your patience at the polls during the transition with this new technology.

ELECTION INSPECTORS - A BIG THANK-YOU!

Thank-you to the hard working election inspectors who serve our community on Election Day! These citizens have dedicated much time to learning the election process and work a long day (and night) to make sure every voter has the opportunity to participate in the democratic process. Election Day wouldn’t happen without them!

Polling Locations will be open from 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Precinct # 1: Fire Station – 45 E. Long Lake Road Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304

Precinct # 2: Congregational Church of Birmingham – 1000 Cranbrook Road Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304

Amy L. Burton, City Clerk aburton@bloomfieldhillsmi.net (248) 530-1403 phone