2026 Election, Government, Opinion

A Pre-Election Catchup

I’m probably not the only one who feels like I’m desperately trying to catch my breath right now in the midst of a sea of important local, state, and national races on the ballot November 3. I wanted to take a minute to try and put all of our coverage in one place for anyone who hasn’t early voted or voted absentee and plans to head to their polling locations on Tuesday.

Here are the local races and candidate information we featured:

Here are the ballot proposals we wrote about:

City of Flint voters won’t vote on it, but I did write about the absurd ballot proposal to change Flint Township’s name. I hope rational thought prevails there.

I also, unfortunately, was not able to do full stories on the police/fire millage renewal or MTA millage renewal in front of Flint voters (if anyone knows a trick for getting any MTA employees to return messages from media, please let me know!). Both are important and worthy of support, though.

In addition to re-upping those stories above, I also wanted to take a minute and talk about a few things we did well and a few places we fell short in our first attempt at covering a busy election season since our publication launched.

Why We Asked What We Asked

Most of the questions on our candidate questionnaires were open-ended and the reasons we asked them were pretty self-evident. A few, though, were on there for specific reasons:

  • Age: It’s never comfortable asking people their age, and including a spot to fill it in wasn’t meant to offend any candidate who may or may not like sharing their age. However, we do have a problem in politics at all levels: politicians tend to be old. That makes sense, especially in local races that aren’t a full-time job. It is much easier for a retiree to run for a board or council seat than it is for someone trying to balance career or family demands. But it is still vital that our elected officials better reflect the electorate they represent, and it is important for voters to know the age range of candidates they are considering for specific offices.
  • Criminal history: This is another uncomfortable question to ask under most circumstances. But the fact is, a handful of candidates have had public legal issues and accusations that voters know about. We wanted to provide the opportunity, if they chose, for candidates to address in their own words any public records, pending charges, or accusations of serious crimes that voters might be aware of. I want to reiterate that a criminal record in and of itself shouldn’t be considered a disqualifying factor for people seeking public office. I do, however, think that any matters involving violence or financial crimes deserve to be explained to voters.
  • LGBT+ Inclusion: This is simple: elected officials should represent ALL constituents equally and fairly. It doesn’t always happen in practice. So we asked candidates to explain if they were aligned with a recent Flint City Council decision to permanently recognize June as Pride Month in Flint. The question was designed to be a simple litmus test for voters to understand how committed candidates are to equity.

We also tried to have candidates respond to enough questions where voters could get an idea of who they are but not so many questions that we were essentially asking them to write an entire book report.

What We’re Happy About

We’ve been able to present more detailed local candidate information to voters than any other local news outlet. In total, 35 candidates in the races linked above participated. We greatly appreciate every candidate that took the time to respond to our questions.

I thought our format was also effective. It’s one thing to see candidate responses to a question, but having them side-by-side in the same story with the opponents they’re running against makes it easier to compare and differentiate.

I’m also grateful for a partnership with East Village Magazine and former editor Kate Stockrahm. East Village has a 50-year history in Flint and is a known commodity as a publication. Their participation, beginning in our primary election coverage, definitely made it easier for me to reach out to candidates who may not be as familiar with Flint. Daily. as a new startup. They also have a slightly different audience than ours, so I think it was a real value add for candidates to be able to answer one set of questions and have their responses appear in both platforms. I look forward to potentially expanding the network of publications in Flint who work together on election coverage in future elections.

What I Want to Improve

Even with 35 candidates providing responses to our questions, we missed some people. Here’s how it shook out for each race we covered:

  • Beecher Schools: 3 of 4 candidates
  • Flint Schools: 3 of 8 candidates
  • Mott Community College Board: 5 of 8 candidates
  • Probate Judge: 2 of 2 candidates
  • Flint City Council: 19 of 20 candidates
  • Flint Mayor: 3 of 4 candidates

The most disappointing group to me was clearly the Flint Board of Education candidates. Seven of eight actually responded to our email and text outreach and noted receiving the message. They had two weeks to complete the questions, and four who acknowledged getting them still didn’t take the time to share more of their vision with voters.

It’s a consequential and important time in the history of Flint Community Schools, and I would expect any candidate serious about that role would be willing to answer questions about their background and what attributes they bring to the table.

I’m not so self-important (admittedly … I am a little self-important) that I think our publication is the only game in town, but the candidates who didn’t respond to the Flint. Daily./EVM questions also didn’t respond or do interviews with other publications that I can find. With three spots open on the board and eight candidates running, as a voter here that is the one local race where I wish I had more information. It’s frustrating that candidates could’ve easily provided that info and chose not to.

Another area that I hope to improve in future election cycles is timeliness. The Genesee County Election Division has been sharing impressive early voting numbers. It is clear that many people are taking advantage of the added convenience early voting offers (and aren’t dinosaurs like me who like the thrill of an Election Day line). That means we need to get candidate information in front of voters even sooner.

Lastly, do you ever get something done only to realize all the things you should’ve added? Well, there are two topics I really wish I had included on the questionnaires.

For Mayoral and City Council candidates, I really wish I’d asked about law enforcement use of Flock Cameras and the data they collect. At the Genesee County level, despite large numbers of residents speaking in opposition to an existing contract and proposed expansion of Flock use as well as a lawsuit by a Kettering University student, those concerns haven’t swayed the Board of Commissioners from supporting their use. Considering Flint Chief of Police Terrence Green said, according to reporting by Flint Beat’s Mitchell Kukulka, that he’d like to “blanket the city” with the unpopular cameras, it would’ve been instructive to know how the candidates for Mayor and Council feel about that.

For MCC and school board candidates, I should’ve asked about artificial intelligence. Anyone who has taught is surely aware at how rampant A.I. use is by students, how hard it can be to detect, how lacking most institution’s policies are to combat it, and how things like deepfakes and sexually abusive material have been used to harass students in schools and universities. Anyone on education-related boards over the next two years is surely going to have to work quickly and expertly to craft meaningful and enforceable A.I. policies for students, faculty, and staff in those institutions.

Part of the reason I launched this publication was simply frustration with not being able to find much information about things going on in the community I love. Our first foray into election coverage wasn’t as perfect as I’d like it to be, but I do think it was thorough and at least gives voters enough of a starting point to make informed decisions about who represents us locally. Thanks for reading, and we are looking forward to building from here.

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Patrick Hayes

Writer. Trailer park alum.