GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Kent County voters will find two millage renewals on the Aug. 2 primary ballot.

“There are important questions on the ballot that could impact you and we want voters to make their voice heard on those,” Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons said.

The two countywide millages affect the funding for veterans and senior services. Both proposals are requesting a continuation from millages passed in 2014.

The senior millage helps fund services for lower-income seniors, Dusty Scheuerman with Elders’ Helpers said. He said the thousands of seniors relying on the coverage can’t afford for the proposal to fail.

“It’d mean they will not have any more help (and) they can’t afford to… pay out of their pocket, so this is literally their only lifeline,” Scheuerman said.

The same goes for the veterans millage, according to those pushing for its approval. Paul Ryan, advocate for the veterans millage, said the funds approved in 2014 had a big impact.

“This funding has enabled Kent County Veterans Services to really think outside the box with respect to various ways that veterans can be assisted in terms of mental health and post-traumatic stress,” Ryan said.

Posthumus Lyons said the county has sent out more than 76,000 absentee ballots. About a third of them have been returned, she said.

“We usually get about 90% (returned), so there’s a lot of folks still holding onto those ballots,” she said.

Whether you vote by absentee ballot or in person, election officials are reminding voters they can’t cross party lines on their ballot in the primary election.

“You have to pick either the Democrat or the Republican and then you stay in that lane all the way,” Posthumus Lyons said. “If you cross over, it spoils your ballot, and your vote won’t count.”