Rep. Jim Haadsma | House photo
The results of a retabulation of votes in Calhoun County has been completed, indicating that the Democratic incumbent in a key state House seat remains behind by a whisker-thin margin, although overseas and military ballots are still being processed.
Initial results on Nov. 5 showed state Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) losing by 1,381 votes to Republican challenger, Calhoun County Commissioner Steve Frisbie, in the 44th District seat. But an error blamed on a pair of high speed tabulators which did not combine vote totals, overriding a first report of ballots instead of adding to it, resulted in approximately 2,800 absentee ballots not being counted.
After the error was discovered, the unofficial results were updated to diminish Frisbie’s lead to just 58 votes — 20,823 total votes for him to 20,765 for Haadsma.
However, Haadsma’s attorney, Chris Trebilcock, told the Michigan Advance late Sunday those results were “admittedly wrong” and demanded the board of county canvassers rerun the ballots from Battle Creek. After consulting with the Michigan Secretary of State, the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to do just that, with the retabulation of absentee ballots commencing on Wednesday morning.
The rerunning of ballots had been delayed for about an hour Wednesday after Frisbie filed a lawsuit in Calhoun County Circuit Court seeking to stop the effort, but it was dismissed the same day.
According to a press release on Friday afternoon from Calhoun County Clerk Kimberly Hinkley, the rerunning of absentee ballots confirmed the unofficial results indicating Frisbie retained his lead of 58 votes. a
“Military and overseas ballots still need to be processed,” stated the release. “Once the Calhoun County Board of Canvassers certifies the election (by Tuesday, November 19), any necessary updates to the website will be made and uploaded as official.”
When asked for comment, Trebilcock told the Advance that once the canvass is complete they will make a decision on requesting an official recount, noting that not all the votes have been counted.
State law allows for a recount in a state House race if the margin of victory is less than 200 votes.
Haadsma’s seat was one of four that was reported to be flipped by Republicans, giving them a 58-52 majority in the next session that begins in January.
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