Although it may not have been the most exciting or dramatic decision the panel has ever made, a move the Marquette County Board of Commissioners made earlier this week is immensely important in keeping citizens informed during an election cycle.

The board approved a proposal from the company ElectionStats to update the county’s website, which sounds simple and straight forward.

The change would allow for an easily navigable election results database on the county’s website.

“It makes a lot of sense if you see what’s going on around the country,” said Chairman Gerald Corkin. “County clerks and clerks in general with all the pressure and grief they have to take concerning elections, anything that will help to explain to the public the facts of what’s going on will certainly be helpful.”

We couldn’t agree more and can easily point to the most recent presidential election cycle for good examples of what can go haywire during balloting.

According to Mining Journal coverage of the matter, Marquette County Clerk Linda Talsma says that the current website setup makes election records very difficult to navigate and says that this update will help.

“Part of my job entails sharing election information with the public and giving the public an avenue that is easy to navigate election results,” Talsma said in a letter to the county board. “Currently my reports are not that — reports can range anywhere between 60-260 pages of data, making it very difficult to look at the county website and find answers to various questions.”

The board voted to award the company, which has already done this in seven states, $9,500 with an additional $5,000 each year after to streamline the website elections data.

As we said at the beginning of this narrative, this decision isn’t the most dramatic ever taken by the county board but it’s importance can’t be overstated.

Living in the times that we are, units of government must always be looking for ways and means to provide increasingly greater amounts of information to the people they represent.

Misinformation so often, it seems, has free rein in today’s society.

This step by the Marquette County Board recognizes that fact and tries to counteract it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The leadership Corkin provided on this issue would be among the last issues he would deal with as chairman of the Marquette County Board. Corkin passed away Thursday.