Election glitch throws outcome of Michigan House race into dispute

LANSING — Unofficial election results from Battle Creek initially excluded several thousand votes. The discovery of a programming error and subsequent updates to the vote totals made a competitive state legislative race much closer though Republicans are still on track to flip the Michigan House from Democratic control once election officials certify the results.

The updated unofficial election results posted by the Calhoun County Clerk's office Friday afternoon reduced the gap between Republican Steve Frisbie, who The Associated Press had declared the winner, and state Rep. Jim Haadsma, D-Battle Creek, who had been declared ousted, to just 58 votes and put the outcome in dispute.

Haadsma said Friday he has not conceded the race while Frisbie declared victory. The results were listed as "unofficial" as of Friday evening. A bipartisan county canvassing board will certify the outcome of the race. Haadsma could request a recount.

Angela Benander, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office, said Battle Creek used two high-speed absentee ballot tabulators but, due to a programming error, the reported numbers did not combine the results from the two tabulators and instead excluded about half the results.

The updated results added more than 4,500 votes, according to an update to the county's unofficial tally for the presidential election.

The AP called the race in the 44th House District for Haadsma's opponent, Frisbie, based on unofficial results showing Frisbie with 52% of the vote, compared with 48% for Haadsma, which is close to a 1,400-vote margin.

But on Friday afternoon, the county updated its website to include votes that had been omitted from earlier reporting due to the programming error at the city of Battle Creek. The newly reported votes reduced Frisbie's margin of victory to 0.14 percentage points, the website shows.

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Frisbie said he learned about the mistake Thursday afternoon and joked that he had worn out his finger refreshing the Calhoun County website to check for updates to the unofficial election results. "I think it's a pretty thin margin, but it's still a win," he said following the update to the vote totals.

When Haadsma became aware of the update to the vote totals Friday, he said he's still in wait-and-see mode. “I definitely think that these are the most unofficial of unofficial results,” he said.

Haadsma said he has personally received no communication from the county clerk's office while his GOP opponent, he said, appeared to have received early notice of the mistake. According to Haadsma, on Thursday night, the county clerk and her deputy clerks were trying to reconcile the differences and there were several Republicans present, including the GOP caucus' attorney, along with Frisbie, who Haadsma said "was on top of this." Haadsma said his legislative director observed the canvass Thursday night after he was informed that Republicans were there to observe. The outreach seemed like "an afterthought," Haadsma said.

Haadsma has concerns about the process so far. "It raises all kinds of suspicions. It doesn't pass a basic smell test," he said. He noted that his staffer carried out an analysis of election data, predicting he would win the race.

Frisbie stood by the county clerk's handling of the situation, calling the clerk "one of the most honest people in the world" and said he was told that both campaigns received notice of the error one right after the other.

"I just want to really stress that there's nothing going on that people need to worry about that there's undue influence outside of a fair election process," he said. "I know there's folks that will doubt it," he said, adding that Democrats are already casting doubt on the situation.

The Battle Creek clerk's office referred questions Friday to Calhoun County Clerk Kimberly Hinkley. She issued a statement Friday afternoon that said she is "confident in the integrity of our election process, despite this temporary issue, and ultimately we will be able to 100% certify the results within our county as required by law and expected by our voters."

Benander said the programming error was made by Battle Creek city election officials and the Bureau of Elections believes it is specific to, and limited to, that city. Numbers on the state's elections results website were updated Friday afternoon following the county's release of its updated vote tallies.

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Benander said county and state canvasses are designed to catch errors such as this, which is what is happening in this instance.

Additional votes reported from Battle Creek impacted the latest count for the competitive statewide races on the ballot, along with other races, including for the 4th Congressional District, judge of Court of Appeals for the 3rd District, county and city offices, school boards and a local ballot proposal. But the updates did not impact the outcome of those races, the latest unofficial results show.

As of Thursday, Republicans were celebrating unofficial results that showed them with a 58-52 GOP majority that included the initial vote tally showing Haadsma losing his seat. But if Haadsma wins, that would leave the state House with a 57-53 GOP majority.

In 1992, a miscount in the initial vote tally in one state House race was found shortly after that year’s election. An error in the unofficial results in Warren incorrectly showed a victory for Republican challenger John Chmura in his bid to unseat incumbent Democratic state Rep. Dennis Olshove, D-Warren, according to Free Press coverage at the time.

Based on the unofficial count, Chmura beat Olshove by 54 votes. But Warren’s clerk said numbers were transposed when they were entered into the computers, according to the Free Press’ coverage.

Olshove ended up winning the race by six votes, archived election results on the Macomb County Clerk’s website show. The discovery of the results snafu punctured Republicans’ enthusiasm after celebrating what they thought would be a GOP majority in the state House. Instead, the House was split 55-55 along party lines and Democrats and Republicans brokered a historic deal to share power in the chamber.

This article was updated to add new information.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Battle Creek election glitch undercounted thousands of absentee votes