Judge dismisses lawsuit over hotly contested state House race in Battle Creek
LANSING — A dispute over a tightly contested state House race in Calhoun County briefly moved to the courtroom Wednesday before a judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to halt a re-tabulation of absentee ballots from Battle Creek.
The election in the 44th House District between Rep. Jim Haadsma, D-Battle Creek, and Republican challenger Steve Frisbie, also from Battle Creek, was expected to be close. But the outcome was thrown into controversy when initial unofficial results, which showed Frisbie beating Haadsma by close to 1,400 votes, were updated three days following the election, after an error was discovered, to show the gap reduced to 58 votes.
State and local officials 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. About 4,500 votes were added to the county's unofficial tally for the presidential election, once the error was detected.
On Tuesday, the four-member Calhoun County Board of Canvassers, which has equal numbers of Republican and Democratic members, voted to order that absentee ballot results from the city of Battle Creek be re-tabulated, or counted a second time, to make sure the initial results were accurate.
On Wednesday, Frisbie sued in Calhoun County Circuit Court to attempt to stop that from happening. The suit argued that under state law it was premature for the board of canvassers to call for a re-tabulation of ballots, some or all of which may have already been counted. The lawsuit said the canvass of the absentee ballots should be completed first, and that had not happened as of Wednesday.
But late Wednesday, Calhoun Circuit Judge John Hallacy dismissed the lawsuit. He said Frisbie has other legal remedies, short of filing a lawsuit, if he is unhappy with the county canvass, and was required to first pursue those avenues before going to court. For example, he could request a recount, the judge said in a two-page order dismissing the suit.
Haadsma, who has said he is considering a recount if official results show he lost the race, opposed the lawsuit.
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"I want to see every vote accurately counted, regardless of whether it impacts the results of the election," Haadsma, who supported the board's request for a re-tabulation, said in a news release.
"Confidence in our elections is essential to the health of our democracy, and the people of Battle Creek deserve to know that every effort was made to ensure the accurate tabulation of their votes."
Calhoun County was one of at least five counties around the state where initial unofficial results posted to the state website were significantly off, due mostly to human error by election workers.
Republicans are celebrating unofficial results that show them with a 58-52 GOP majority in the Michigan House that includes Haadsma losing his seat. If the race outcome in the 44th House District was to be overturned, that would leave the state House with a 57-53 GOP majority.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Judge dismisses lawsuit over state House race in Battle Creek