From super majority to narrow minority

Democrats accept election results; Bahle wants recount

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

To use a football metaphor, the breakout 60-yard gain was called back for a penalty, killing the team’s momentum and resulting in negative yards.

Leelanau Democrats are disappointed after the 6-1 super majority on the County Commission they thought they had—following unofficial, and incomplete, election results posted to the County website in the wee hours of Nov. 6­—changed to just three seats. They’ll be in the political minority once again through the four-year term.

The national election was a disaster for Democrats, as Republican Donald Trump took all seven swing states, including Michigan, and won the presidency from Democrat Kamala Harris. Democrats lost control of the U.S. Senate, too. But Leelanau voters leaned blue.

They preferred Harris to Trump, 9,396 votes to 8,032 votes; in the Senate race, they favored Democrat Elissa Slotkin to Republican Mike Rogers, 9,156 to 8,100 (Slotkin narrowly won); in the Congressional race, they voted for Democratic challenger Callie Barr over incumbent Republican Jack Bergman, 9,029 to 8,163 (Bergman won easily). And in the State House race, Leelanau voters favored incumbent Democrat Betsy Coffia over Republican Lisa Trombley, 9,101 to 8,378 (Coffia won reelection).

Democrats thought they were riding a blue wave on the County Commission, too, until County Clerk Michelle Crocker suddenly alerted candidates, and the media, on Friday afternoon, Nov. 8, that more than 3,000 in-person early votes had not been counted in the unofficial results. They were uploaded to the ElectionSource software on election night, but didn’t save correctly. A hand count of the paper backup ballots revealed the discrepancy.

There were discrepancies and errors with unofficial vote counts elsewhere in Michigan, too, including in Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Kent counties.

“During this important canvassing process, it came to our attention that the results from the Early Voting Site were not reflected in the UNOFFICIAL result counts from Tuesday evening,” Crocker said. “The results did not save to the reports posted to the unofficial results website. As part of canvassing, all results are verified against tabulated paper back-up.”

As a result, Democrats Scott Perry in District 2, Lois Bahle in District 3 and incumbent Kama Ross in District 5 ended up losing after they thought they had won. Bahle, who now trails her Republican opponent Will Bunek by seven votes, plans to request a recount once results are certified late this week.

“I owe it to my constituents and to myself with only a seven-vote difference,” said Bahle. “The recount process is also a way to show that the system works. We can have faith in it.”

Brigid Hart, co-chair of the Leelanau Democrats and a member of the canvassing board, said that, while the results were disappointing, the canvassing process worked like it was supposed to.

“We found an error and accounted for it. That’s what was supposed to happen,” she said. “Democrats don’t like the results. But there’s nothing untoward.”

The Glen Arbor Sun and other news outlets including the Leelanau Enterprise, the Traverse City Record-Eagle, and the Leelanau Ticker, all reported the unofficial, and erroneous, results on Nov. 6.

While the software error was understandable, the optics of the flipped result were poor—particularly as the nation continues to grapple with Trump’s blatant refusal to concede the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, the violent Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that Trump inspired, and a growing mistrust of elections and voting systems among some Americans.

Hart wanted to lay that to rest.

“It does seem like conceding elections is done more by one (party) than the other,” she said. “As Democrats, we accept the results and move on. That’s the way the system is supposed to work.”

Barring a different result in District 3, where Bahle plans to ask for a recount, Republicans will control the Commission with four members—Mark Walter in District 2, Bunek, Alan Campbell in District 5, and Steve Yoder in District 7. Yoder’s victory over Democrat Tim Dowd was never in doubt. He had upset longtime Republican incumbent Melinda Lautner in the primary election this summer. Democrats will have three seats—Rick Robbins in District 1, incumbent Ty Wessell in District 4, and incumbent Gwenne Allgaier in District 6.

“It was disappointing news for some of us, but our election process works and I absolutely know that we can trust the final results,” said Wessell, who noted that, of all votes cast for Leelanau County Commission candidates, there were 8,840 votes for Democratic candidates and 8,300 for Republican candidates.

“I am confident that we will have a Board of Commissioners that will work well together, represent all residents, and do the business of the county. We will keep our tax rate low, serve our residents, and deliver on all of the mandated responsibilities of County government.”

County Clerk Crocker cautioned residents to remember that the results posted on the County website are unofficial until certified, and the vote counting process ultimately worked as it was supposed to.

“Once it was brought to my attention by canvassers (on Friday), I could see that something wasn’t right,” she said. “Everything about the process is open and transparent. All of the ballots were tabulated. They were there. They just didn’t upload to the (initial) report.

“We need to remember they were unofficial. People want to jump to conclusions. But there’s nothing strange here. It was corrected as soon as it was picked up.”