For townships like Lima Township, the August election is probably just as important as the general one in November.

As it stands right now on the list of candidates, Lima Township has only one party on the August 6 Primary ballot, so the outcome for township board will be likely be determined in August after the primary rather than in the general election in November.

The Lima Township Board consists of five members: a supervisor, clerk, treasurer and two trustees. In the August election, incumbent supervisor Duane Luick is facing off against William VanRiper while incumbent treasurer Nanette Havens is going against Phillip Kwaske. All four are listed Republican and so are the two board trustee candidates Greg McKenzie and Dale Luick, who are incumbents running for two trustee openings, so they are running unopposed.

Lima’s clerk is Ann Kwaske was appointed clerk in January after the township’s third clerk resigned. She is not on the August ballot nor is anyone else for clerk.

Clerk Kwaske said she expects an increased election workload with voting changes now in place, such as the nine days of early voting along with no-reason absentee voting and same-day voter registration.

When asked about the election, Kwaske told the Sun Times News that “Just as the new clerk I’m seeing that the August Primary has very low turnout compared to the November General. I think it would be good for people to know that for the smaller townships the August election is just as important as the November. Lima typically only has Republican candidates, so the winner in August has no competition in November.”

For more information on voting in Lima, go to https://limatownshipmi.gov/departments/election-information/.