MI Secretary of State Ruth Johnson visits Houghton

Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson has been touring the U.P. this week, and she made a stop at the Houghton branch this morning.

Johnson has been promoting the historic increase in the number of people joining the state’s Organ Donor Registry. She says they’re seeing more people sign up now that staff members ask people about becoming organ donors.

“It’s the dedicated staff that have made the difference across the state, and our best place in the state is the Upper Peninsula for getting people to join, so I want to talk to them and find out what are you doing that works so well so that we can emulate that throughout the state of Michigan,” Johnson said.

Starting on May 1st, all honorably discharged veterans can go to a local branch and receive a veterans mark on their driver’s license. Johnson says the state needs to show its support for all the veterans that come home.

“We have 680,000 veterans in Michigan,” she said. “We’re the 11th-highest in the nation. We’ll have information so people know what’s available to them. They’ve earned so many benefits. They deserve them. They deserve the discounts people offer and we want to make it easy for them.”

Almost anything you want to do at the local branch can also be done online. Johnson wants to remind all residents they can go to michigan.gov/sos for everything from renewing a license to ordering a new plate.