January 2024

Monthly Newsletter

Upcoming Events:

1/9/2024 - Election Commission Meeting

1/22/2024 - Election Logic and Accuracy Testing Begins

2/17/2024 - Early Voting Begins

2/27/2024 - Presidential Primary Election

We want to hear from you!

The Clerk/Register’s office is dedicated to serve you, and it is our mission to ensure that you leave our office having had a good interaction no matter the outcome. If you had an interaction with our office recently, we' love to get your feedback.  Your comments will help us improve our service and better tell our story. Please submit your feedback here.

Letter from the Clerk

Happy 2024!

This is always an exciting time of year for me, as I take time to reflect on the successes of the past year and look for ways to grow and improve in the coming one. As our team bids farewell to a busy and fruitful 2023, we are looking forward to projects in the year ahead.  Just a few of the things that are on the horizon for us include:

• A move to the new Family Justice Center building, which is nearing completion at the Fillmore Administrative Complex in West Olive. The Family Justice Center will bring all family court operations under one central location for our residents, and our Circuit Court Records team at the Clerk’s Office is making some adjustments and working on cross training that will better serve our customers in West Olive while also continuing to serve the Criminal and Civil dockets of the Circuit Court in Grand Haven.
• A new case management system for all Circuit Court records. This has been a multi-year and multi-departmental project within the County but will ultimately result in a more streamlined and efficient way for our office to receive, process and file the more than 100,000 documents per year that we receive as the Clerk to the 20^th Circuit Court.  The completed case management platform will also allow for better online public access to court records.
• Implementation of Early Voting, as required by the amendment to the Michigan Constitution that passed in 2022. Our team is so excited to offer Early Voting to all Ottawa County residents under a partnership with the County Clerk and each of our City and Township Clerks.  Our collaboration will save Ottawa County taxpayers nearly $1 million in 2024 and will offer the early voting option conveniently and securely for all of our voters. (See article below for further details on Early Voting sites and hours of operation).
• Continued training and development of Clerk/Register staff. We could not do the work we do without an incredible and dedicated team, and I believe it’s critical to foster a culture of personal and professional development for our team, and for our team in turn to create an environment of transparency, respect and service for our customers.
• Making public engagement a priority. We loved engaging with the community in so many ways in 2023! Our team participated in service projects and also continued our tradition of adopting one local charity per quarter. We held five successful “Coffee with the Clerk” events and had great conversation all across the county with so many residents. We conducted a number of training sessions for our election workers and local clerks, visited schools to talk about the voting process and civic engagement, and we met with so many of our Veterans this year through our Honor Rewards program as well. We look forward to connecting even more in 2024! Stay tuned to the Monthly Newsletter, our website and social media to hear what’s coming next!

One thing that will not change in 2024 is our central mission as an organization: To help our customers and encourage their trust in government.  Trust is earned, and I believe it’s more important than ever to develop strong relationships of trust and accountability between our residents and their government.  Thank you for allowing me and our whole team to serve you in the year ahead!

 - Justin 

Early Voting Centers Launching in 2024

Ottawa County voters will have additional options for casting their ballot in state and federal elections coming up in 2024, beginning with the Presidential Preference Primary in February. In September 2023, the Board of Commissioners approved a plan presented by Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck in collaboration with 23 City and Township Clerks to collectively implement early voting.

Proposal 2022-2, which passed in November of 2022, amended the Michigan Constitution to provide the right to a minimum 9-day period of early voting prior to every state or federal election. The constitutional amendment places the responsibility of funding and operating early voting on city and township clerks across the state but does allow for collaborative agreements between municipal and county clerks for the conduct of early voting.

The County Clerk’s Office as well as all local jurisdictional clerks are working hard to ensure that Ottawa County residents have a secure, cost-effective, and customer friendly early voting process.

Voters will soon be receiving additional information by mail and can also visit the Ottawa County Early Voting website for more information.

Hot Chocolate & Celebrate

The Clerk/ROD team serves many patrons as their customers, some customers we interact with on a daily basis are offices within the county. To show our appreciation, the Clerk/ROD team was able to celebrate the season with our fellow Ottawa County employees by hosting a hot chocolate bar.

Gifting for a Difference In time for the holidays, the teams from the Clerk/Register Office, the Ottawa County Water Resources Department and the Ottawa County Treasurers Office were able to gather items to assist the Resilience Shelter in Holland.  The shelter provided a list of some of their biggest needs including kitchen wares and cleaning supplies that we were able to collect and provide.  The Resilience Shelter provides services to victims of domestic and sexual abuse, sometimes including emergency lodging.  It was our honor to assist the shelter in providing some of these comforts to continue to provide a safe and welcoming location while individuals are away from their homes

Justin F. Roebuck

Clerk | Register of Deeds

414 Washington Ave. Room 320 | Grand Haven, Michigan 49417

12220 Fillmore St. | West Olive, Michigan 49460| 616-994-4537

jroebuck@miottawa.org | www.miottawa.org/ClerkROD

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