Thousands of previously unreported votes change some apparent winners in Michigan - mlive.com
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People vote in voting booths at the Museum of Art on University of Michigan's main campus in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024Josh Boland | MLive.com
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- Michael Kransz | mkransz@mlive.com
About 26,000 unreported votes across four counties were added Friday afternoon to Michigan's unofficial results, changing the apparent winners in some races.
State officials said they're not aware of any outcomes changing in races in Kent and Kalamazoo counties from the additional votes. Kent County Clerk's Office officials confirmed Saturday that no apparent winners have changed.
However, the votes have the potential to change, and have changed, apparent winners in some county-level races in Calhoun and Leelanau counties.
The unreported votes could also potentially prompt a recount in a closely watched state House race where Republicans flipped the seat on their path to taking back the majority.
Related: Uncounted votes allegedly found in Michigan county after software error
In the race for Michigan State University's Board of Trustees, one of the apparent winners changed in the unofficial results due to a data error in Allegan County, the Lansing State Journal reported. The unreported votes in Calhoun County contributed to the flip.
Michigan Department of State officials stressed that the results people see the night of Election Day and in the following days are unofficial until certified. That bipartisan certification process is designed to catch errors like the ones leading to these unreported votes, officials said.
"It's typical for the canvassing process to identify these kinds of issues and correct them," state department officials said. "The purpose of the canvass is to ensure the results are accurate. That's why we emphasize that these are unofficial results until the canvass is complete and results are certified."
In all, 26,662 votes were added 4 p.m. Friday to the state's unofficial tally. Of those, 13,795 votes came from Kent County, 6,691 from Kalamazoo County, 4,602 from Calhoun County and 1,574 from Leelanau County.
Apart from Calhoun County, which had a software error, officials say the unreported votes in Kent, Kalamazoo and Leelanau counties stemmed from human error, not machine error.
In Kent County, some absentee ballots in Ada and Plainfield townships were properly tabulated and tallied during the election but failed to be transmitted and reported to the county, said Rob Macomber, chief deputy clerk for Kent County. The mistake was caught Wednesday morning with the votes added to the county's unofficial results the following day.
"This is exactly what the canvass is for and why this part of the process is so incredibly important to ensuring every vote is counted and the results are accurate," said Kent County Clerk Posthumus Lyons. "It's why we always emphatically emphasize that results are unofficial until the canvass has completed its review and certified the election."
In Kalamazoo County, county officials initially sent the state results that did not reflect some ballots from Portage and Brady Township, MDOS officials said. The Kalamazoo County Clerk could not be immediately reached.
MDOS officials said they weren't aware of any apparent winners changing as a result of the unreported votes.
In Leelanau County, the county's initial unofficial results inadvertently reflected the results from logic and accuracy test ballots instead of the ballots cast during early voting, officials said. The error has since been corrected in the unofficial results.
The Leelanau County Clerk's Office did not immediately respond for comment.
Unofficial results in Leelanau County initially showed Democrats winning an "unprecedented" 6-1 majority on the county board and also winning the drain commissioner office, according to the Leelanau Ticker.
However, the latest results from the clerk's office on Friday show Republicans are poised to hold a 4-3 majority on the board.
In Calhoun County, Battle Creek officials used two high-speed absentee ballot tabulators, but the county's system wasn't programmed to combine the drives from the two tabulators, officials said.
After reading the first set of numbers, the system replaced the first results with the second set instead of adding them together.
Prior to the roughly 4,600 votes being tallied in Calhoun County, the county's unofficial results had shown that incumbent Democrat Rep. Jim Haadsma lost to Republican challenger Steve Frisbie by a tally of 19,233 votes to 17,852 votes.
The Associated Press called the race for Frisbie on Thursday afternoon.
The latest results from the county clerk's office show Frisbie securing a narrower victory, with him taking 20,823 votes to Haadsma's 20,765 votes, a difference of 58 votes and tally of 50.1% to 49.9%.
Haadsma's seat is one four flipped by Republicans on Tuesday to give them a 58-52 majority in the state House, ending Democrats' brief but historic control of both legislative chambers and the governorship.
Related: Republicans flip state House, end historic Democrat trifecta in Michigan
Gongwer reported the unreported votes could also impact the results of the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners race.
The latest unofficial results show Republicans are poised to hold a 6-1 majority on the county board. It wasn't clear if any of the apparent winners had changed from the initial unofficial results.
The closest race on the board shows incumbent Democrat Rochelle Hatcher losing to Republican Dominic Oo, with Hatcher taking 3,944 votes to Oo's 3986 votes, a difference of 42 votes.
The seat represents parts of Battle Creek and all of Springfield.
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