WHO ARE WE ACTUALLY VOTING FOR?
Part One: What’s really on a Westland voter’s November 3 ballot?
You know you're voting for governor. You probably know there's a U.S. Senate race.
But then you keep moving down the ballot and suddenly you're looking at names you've never heard before, judges you don't know, university boards you may not realize you're responsible for choosing and proposals written in language that can take three reads to understand.
We're going to fix that.
Over the next several weeks, Voice of Westland is going through the November ballot from the perspective of someone who actually lives here.
We aren't going to tell you who to vote for.
We're going to find out who these people are, what the offices actually do, what the candidates have publicly said they stand for and, when someone already holds public office, what their public record shows.
But before we get into the candidates, we need to know exactly what we're voting on.
Michigan's general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Absentee ballots become available this Thursday, September 24, which means some Westland residents will begin making these decisions in just a few days.
Let's start at the top
Michigan voters will elect a new governor and lieutenant governor.
The official state candidate list currently shows five tickets:
Democratic: Jocelyn Benson and Winnie Brinks
Republican: John James and Jay DeBoyer
Libertarian: Anthony Hudson and Beau Parmenter
U.S. Taxpayers: Donna Brandenburg and Robert Donald Cowper II
Green: Douglas Campbell and Bobbie Clay
We're not getting into what they stand for yet. That's coming.
The important thing for Part One is knowing these are the choices that will actually be in front of Michigan voters.
Secretary of State
This is another statewide race, and it's an office that has a direct role in elections, driver's licenses, vehicle registrations and other state services.
The candidates certified by the state are:
Garlin Gilchrist II, Democratic
Anthony G. Forlini, Republican
Christine Sloan, Libertarian
Scott E. Aughney, U.S. Taxpayers
Eric Borregard, Green
Attorney General
Michigan voters will also choose the state's next attorney general.
The candidates are:
Eli Savit, Democratic
Doug Lloyd, Republican
Jason Dye, Libertarian
John Perry Ludtke Jr., U.S. Taxpayers
Jeff Polonowski, Green
Doug Dern, Natural Law
We'll get into what the attorney general actually controls, and what each of these candidates says they would do with the office, in a later part of this series.
Michigan is electing a U.S. senator
This is an open U.S. Senate seat because current Sen. Gary Peters is not seeking another term.
And there aren't just two names on the ballot.
Michigan's official candidate list shows:
Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic
Mike Rogers, Republican
Lydia Christensen, Libertarian
Tim Long, U.S. Taxpayers
Douglas P. Marsh, Green
Walter P. Kristy, Natural Law
That person will serve a six-year term representing Michigan in the United States Senate.
We'll spend an entire story on this race.
Then we get closer to home
Westland is in Michigan's 12th Congressional District, so we're also electing someone to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The candidates are:
Rashida Tlaib, Democratic
James D. Hooper, Republican
Marc Joseph Sosnowski, U.S. Taxpayers
Brenda K. Sanders, Green
Gary Walkowicz, Working Class Party
Unlike a U.S. senator's six-year term, members of the U.S. House are elected every two years.
Michigan Senate
Westland is also part of Michigan Senate District 5.
The candidates are:
Matt Koleszar, Democratic
Estelle Oliansky, Republican.
This is a state office, not to be confused with the U.S. Senate race above.
And that's exactly the kind of thing we're going to slow down and explain throughout this series. There are a lot of similarly named offices on one ballot that have very different jobs.
Your Michigan House race depends on where you live in Westland
Here's where this gets particularly important locally.
Not every Westland resident necessarily has the exact same ballot.
Westland includes voters in more than one Michigan House district.
In House District 25, the candidates are:
Peter Herzberg, Democratic
Dawn Udell, Republican
In House District 26, the candidates are:
Dylan Wegela, Democratic
Chris Dobis, Republican.
So don't assume the sample ballot your friend across town posts on Facebook is identical to yours.
Westland has also recently realigned some voting precincts and polling locations. The city is specifically telling voters to check their precinct information.
The safest way to see your exact ballot is through Michigan's official voter information system.
Check your registration, polling place and sample ballot at Michigan.gov/Vote
Yes, those university boards are real elected offices
Keep going down the ballot and you'll encounter some races that don't get nearly as much attention.
Michigan voters elect members of the State Board of Education.
We also elect members of the governing boards of three major public universities:
University of Michigan Board of Regents
Michigan State University Board of Trustees
Wayne State University Board of Governors
There are multiple candidates and parties competing for those seats this year. The official state candidate list shows two positions being elected on each of those boards.
We're going to come back to these races because they're exactly where many voters start asking:
Who are these people?
That's a fair question.
And then come the judges
Judicial races deserve much more attention than they usually receive.
Two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court are being elected this year.
The six candidates listed by the state are:
Megan Kathleen Cavanagh
Noah P. Hood
Thomas W. Howe
Casandra Morse-Bills
Michael Warren
Jody White
Cavanagh and Hood are listed as incumbents.
Judicial races appear in the nonpartisan portion of the ballot, even though Michigan Supreme Court candidates can reach the ballot through political party conventions. We'll explain that unusual system when we examine the Supreme Court race itself.
Westland voters will encounter additional judicial positions farther down their ballots as well. Rather than throw a wall of judicial names at readers here, we're going to give those races their own treatment.
Wayne County has something on the ballot too
Westland voters will also participate in the election for Wayne County Executive.
Wayne County's November candidate list has three candidates:
Warren C. Evans, Democratic
Michael A. Evans, Republican
John Olumba, no party affiliation.
This is another race we'll examine separately because county government handles services and responsibilities that are different from both Westland city government and state government.
Now for the questions at the bottom of the ballot
There are two statewide proposals this November.
And these deserve more than simply copying the legal language onto Facebook.
Proposal 1: Should Michigan hold a constitutional convention?
Michigan voters will be asked whether a convention of elected delegates should be convened in 2027 to draft a general revision of the Michigan Constitution.
If voters approve the question, that begins the convention process. Any revised constitution produced by the convention would later have to be presented to Michigan voters for approval or rejection.
That's a big question.
We're going to devote a separate story to what a constitutional convention actually is, how the process would work and what a Yes or No vote does.
Proposal 2: Campaign money, utilities and government contractors
The second statewide proposal concerns campaign contributions and political communications.
According to the state's official ballot language, the proposal would prohibit certain regulated electric and gas utilities, government contractors receiving more than $250,000 annually in government contracts, and people or organizations with substantial connections to them from making certain campaign contributions to candidates or officeholders who affect them.
It would also expand campaign-finance rules covering some political communications and expressly apply disclosure requirements to internet political communications.
Again, we're not going to tell you whether that's good or bad.
We're going to explain exactly what changes if you vote Yes and what happens if you vote No.
And your ballot may have more
This is important.
What we've laid out here is the framework for what Westland voters should expect, but your exact ballot depends on your address and voting district.
Michigan's Secretary of State specifically directs voters to Michigan.gov/Vote to view their individual sample ballot. Westland also says its precinct realignment may have changed some residents' precinct numbers or polling locations.
So before Election Day, check yours.
Dates worth knowing
Absentee ballots become available September 24.
The deadline to register online or by mail is October 19. After that, eligible residents can still register in person through Election Day under Michigan's rules.
Statewide early voting runs October 24 through November 1.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
This is only Part One
Today we wanted to answer one question:
What are we actually voting on?
Now comes the harder question.
Who are these people?
Voice of Westland is going through these races one at a time. We'll look at candidates' backgrounds, what they publicly say they stand for, their records when they've already held office and where their positions differ.
If we can't find a candidate's public position on an issue, we're not going to guess. We'll say we couldn't find it and we'll ask them.
We're doing the same thing with the ballot proposals. What does a Yes vote actually do? What does a No vote actually do? Who supports them? Who opposes them? And what are both sides saying?
There will be plenty of time for everybody in Westland to decide for themselves.
Our job is to make sure that when you fill in that little circle, you know what you're voting for.
Coming next: Who wants to be Michigan's next governor, and what have they publicly said they would do if elected?
Michigan's official 2026 candidate list
