A lot like this amazing photo by Dan Crites
MICHIGAN PRIMARIES AUGUST 4
Learn more about the races and the candidates.
BALLOTPEDIA is a useful guide to the Michigan Primaries
Candidates who are coming to speak over the next few weeks:
*For information only. Not an official endorsements by the Antrim County Democratic Party.
DEMS HAVE ALREADY WELCOMED SEVERAL CANDIDATES TO NORTHERN MICHIGAN
GARLIN GILCHRIST FOR SECRETARY OF STATE
ELI SAVIT FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL
CALLIE BARR FOR MICHIGAN’S 1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
MALLORY MCMORROW FOR US SENATOR
ABUL EL-SAYED FOR US SENATOR
OUR OWN ANTRIM COUNTY DEMOCRAT MITCHEL DESTIN FOR STATE SENATOR IN MICHIGAN’S 104TH.
ARE YOU GOING TO BE READY FOR THE MIDTERMS?
Voters in Antrim County will go to the polls for primaries on August 4, 2026, and Midterms on November 3, 2026.
Primary Voting Has Already Started
QUESTION: CAN I STILL VOTE BY MAIL?
ANSWER: A RESOUNDING YES!
Despite the news that reports you won’t be able to use a mail in ballot, the post office is delivering. The ballots will be mailed.
A strategy that we all know Trump uses is to flood the news with his threats as if they were already accomplished.
Remember, his name was removed from the Kennedy Center in Washington
And here is the recent court ruling—From Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Substack:
Big Court Wins
We had another big voting rights win in the Courts yesterday. Here’s an excerpt of a new Democracy Docket article, Judge blocks Trump order that would have let USPS refuse to deliver mail ballots:
A federal judge in Massachusetts Thursday blocked federal agencies from implementing President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting and his attempt to create a national voter registration list before the midterm elections.
District Judge Indira Talwani, a Barack Obama appointee, found that major parts of Trump’s March 2026 anti-voting executive order were “legally void” for exceeding the president’s power and violating the separation of powers by encroaching on states’ authority to administer elections.
“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Talwani wrote.
The 37-page ruling marks a major win for voters before the midterms. In siding with Democratic state attorneys general, Talwani largely stopped the United States Postal Service (USPS) from refusing to deliver mail ballots unless states hand over their voter lists to the Trump administration.
Her order also significantly prevents the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) from effectively creating a nationwide voter registration list by compiling lists of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote.
This ruling comes on the heels of another win in the fight against Trump’s efforts to create a national voter registry. Here’s Democracy Docket again, In blow to Trump, federal judge blocks DHS from using citizenship database to purge voters
A federal judge in Washington D.C. blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using its citizenship database to remove voters from registration rolls, striking a significant blow against President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional attempt to take control of federal elections.
In her 75-page decision Monday, District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan excoriated Trump and DHS’s implementation of his March 25 executive order for ignoring federal privacy laws as they overhauled the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system into a faulty citizenship checker.
“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan wrote. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
Trump’s order directed DHS to overhaul SAVE, taking a database of the immigration status of roughly 26.5 million people and turning it into a citizenship-checking system with access to the personal information of most Americans. The upgrades allowed for bulk searches using partial social security numbers and made the database freely available to state and local election officials.”
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD:
VOTING BY MAIL IS HAPPENING NOW!
Absentee ballots have already been mailed to many Absentee Voters for the August 4 Primary.
The majority of Democrats vote using an absentee ballot.
Why?
1. It is the easiest way to vote.
2. It gives you time to do your research if there is something on the ballot you weren’t expecting (and voting the WHOLE ballot is very important).
3. State law changed and you can now bring your absentee ballot to the polls and vote it just like a ballot issued at the polls so it saves you and the poll workers time. So even if you like to vote in-person, getting on the permanent Absentee Voter list makes sense.
To become a permanent Absentee Voter, go to Michigan.gov/vote.
Newsletter error corrected - apologies from the Newsletter team
We reported the wrong number of Democratic Precinct Delegates for Antrim County.
The number of delegates is actually 34. We can always work toward getting to 64!
Thank you for all who have volunteered to a delegate. Remember to vote for ALL the delegates in your township. To be a delegate, you have to have at least one vote. But you are not running against the other delegates.
Antrim County Democratic Precinct Delegates
CENTRAL LAKE TOWNSHIP
JEFFREY A. BOZYNSKI
CUSTER TOWNSHIP
STEVE KLOTZ
ELK RAPIDS TOWNSHIP
CHERYL BACHMAN
FOREST HOME TOWNSHIP
CHARLES PRYDE, LINDA TRAVIS, STUART TRAVIS, ELLEN BAIRD, JOHN W. WESLEY, MYRNA S. HOLLAND, WILLIAM C. HOLLAND, MARY CLARE KURZ, JAMES J. MUTH, MYRA MUTH, SUSAN MYERS, SALLIE MARTIN FOLEY
HELENA TOWNSHIP
KEVIN D. GARLOCK, DAVID R. MARTIN, GREGORY P. CZACH
KEARNEY TOWNSHIP
DANIEL BENNETT
MANCELONA TOWNSHIP
HEIDI NICOL
MILTON TOWNSHIP
LIS RYAN, CYNTHIA GARWOOD
TORCH LAKE TOWNSHIP
MARY A. SAKALL, CAROLYN SYNOL, THOMAS G. HOLTON, GRETCHEN IORIO, JIM MCKIMMY, LOU ANN MCKIMMY, ELAINE MILLER, JOHN NEMETZ, TAMMY NEMETZ, SARAH DEAN PECK, CHRISTINE HARVEY, MAUREEN LORENZ
CLICK HERE FOR THE UPDATED CALENDAR OF REGULAR EVENTS ON OUR WEBSITE
More great Antrim Dem advertising!
Check out our July 4th ad appearing in the Elk Rapids News, Antrim Review, and the Northern Express. We even share our ads with other counties!
You’ve seen them in Northern Express, Antrim Review, and Elk Rapids News. These ads keep readers informed, raise important questions and remind us all that we cannot ‘look away’ from the damage being caused by Trump and his party. But we need your support to keep the ads going. Publishing the ads is not cheap. We need your help through contributions to the Antrim Dems.
Any amount helps. If we can raise enough money, we are exploring doing radio and internet advertising as well.
As we come closer to August 4 Primary and November 3 Midterm Elections, remember that our ads will also educate voters about candidates and continue to raise awareness about the importance of voting and protecting our democracy.
Thanks for your support!
Contact & Information:
Antrim County Democratic Party
P.O. Box 1025
Bellaire, MI 49615
· Official Website: Antrim County Democratic Party
· Facebook Page: Antrim County Democratic Party on Facebook
JOIN OR RENEW YOUR 2026 MEMBERSHIP
A bi-partisan group is forming to recall Victoria Bishop. Her ability to do the job of Clerk is now constrained by the fact that the Bureau of Elections has revoked her access to the Qualified Voter Files. Her access was revoked because of multiple violations of Michigan Law and her willful disregard for those laws.
We will need to collect 4,000 signatures in a 60-day window. The exact starting date is not yet determined but we are identifying volunteers to help collect signatures as well as the contact information of people willing to sign the recall petition. Even if you can only get 10 other signatures, we need your help. You can collect signatures on your own or join us for one of our public collection points at a time convenient for you.
You can volunteer to collect signatures or to sign the petition by sending an email to Allen Wolf, allenwolf@yahoo.com. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address. Indicate whether you are volunteering to sign or volunteering to collect and also how many other signatures of Antrim Voters you think you can get.
Bishops Settle Defamation Lawsuit
Randy Bishop and Victoria Bishop’s radio station (WCHY) have settled in a defamation lawsuit brought by Moran Iron Works and Tom Moran. The judge had previously found Mr. Bishop and the radio station liable for defamation. This stage of the trial was to determine damages to be paid.
In typical Bishop style, Randy Bishop did not want his MAGA followers to know that he ate crow. So, he was able to arrange for the settlement to be sealed.
Now we can only hope that Victoria has to sell the radio station in order to pay the judgement. Thank you to Tom Moran for helping to put Randy Bishop in his place. And thank you to superstar attorney, Sandy Jasinski, whose keen skills provided so much sworn testimony from the Bishops themselves on their various illegal activities.
VICTORIA BISHOP LOSES ACCESS TO ANTRIM COUNTY VOTER ROLLS
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT . . .
Some people believe that barring Bishop’s access to the Qualified Voter File and thereby limiting her involvement in elections is insufficient. Antrim Dems member, Allen Wolf, sent a letter to the Governor asking her to remove Bishop completely from the Clerk job. A copy of the letter has been sent to the Antrim County Board of Commissioners. You can read Wolf’s letter on the Antrim Dems website.
A next logical step would be for the Board of Commissioners to reduce Bishop’s salary commensurate with her reduced duties. The Commissioners believe they can’t do that legally.
In our June 1 newsletter, we invited you to take 9 minutes and listen to county resident remarks regarding Antrim Country Clerk Victoria Bishop who is accused o serious wrongdoing in her elected position . Please listen to the following. Our thanks to the speakers: Ashley Areeda, Allen Wolf and Kevin Wood for speaking out about the need for integrity in Antrim County government. Victoria Bishop must go! And our gratitude to Antrim County resident Lori Wood for preparing this clip.
Click the image to listen to the May 21 Antrim County Commissioners Meeting Citizen Remarks:
NEWS FROM POLITICO -
PETE BUDDIGEIG FALSLEY ACCUSED
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he was kept apart from his two young children for 24 hours after someone made a false complaint about him to child protective services in Michigan.
Humor:
What does it do for us? A lot! We need the temporary relief it brings. We need that sense that there are so many others who ‘get it’. We are not in this alone and together we will get through it. Stay connected. Stay active. VOTE
Thanks to Heidi Nichol for providing these ‘quick takes’ of the news.
“Never forget this: The forces undermining our democracy, rigging our economy, polluting our planet, and stoking hatred are counting on you to give up. Cynicism is how they win.”
Antrim County Democratic Party/Michigan
Chairperson: Veronica Welter, Chair@antrimdems.com
Website: antrimdems.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AntrimCountyDemocraticParty/
Volume #9. ANTRIM DEMS NEWSLETTER, WRITTEN AND ASSEMBLED BY ALLEN WOLF, JIM BLACK, AND SALLIE FOLEY.
THANKS TO HEIDI NICHOL FOR HER CONTRIBUTIONS.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS CAN BE DIRECTED TO SFOLEY@ANTRIMDEMS.COM