 – are the responsibility of individual cities and townships.Since 1988, the county has been a Democratic stronghold in local & national elections, though was reliably Republican at the presidential level from 1896 to 1960, only voting Democratic once in that span in 1912 when the Republican vote was split.George McGovern's win over Richard Nixon in the county in 1972 despite the latter winning nationally by a landslide was a sign of the county's shift towards supporting the Democratic Party, though Michigander Gerald R. Ford won it in 1976 & Ronald Reagan won it in 1984 among his national landslide, being the most recent Republican to win the county.