From mlive.com
Recount reveals swap in James Township supervisor race
by Roberto Acosta | The Saginaw NewsKristine M. Whitteberry was James Township supervisor … for 11 days.
Whitteberry, the Republican challenger for the township supervisor’s seat, lost her spot after one vote changed the balance of power to Democrat Leonard A. Ballosh.
The two candidates tied at 573 votes apiece in the Nov. 4 general election.
A tiebreaker conducted on Nov. 11 deemed Whitteberry the victor, after she drew the “elected” slip from a box at the Saginaw County courthouse.
Ballosh, at the time, said he would ask for a recount. Whitteberry agreed.
“My feelings going into it were, if I would have drawn the ‘not elected (slip of paper),’ I would have done the same thing,” she said.
During the recount process that ended this month, the county clerk’s office identified two write-in ballots.
One ballot was deemed invalid, because of the lack of a candidate for township supervisor and straight Green Party ticket vote.
The deciding ballot voted a straight Democratic party ticket, despite splitting the ticket with votes for Green Party candidates and Republican presidential candidate John McCain and not filling in a name for supervisor.
“I don’t think anybody knew what was going on,” Whitteberry said, in regards to handling the ballot.
Susan Kaltenbach, Saginaw County clerk, said Michigan is not an “intent state,” meaning despite the various parties voted for, the ballot went to Ballosh because of the straight party vote.
“This is why it is incumbent for the workers to check that write-in bin,” Kaltenbach said, calling the situation an “error on the part” of the election workers.
“That is why Mr. Ballosh asked for a recount,” she added. “This is the only situation, in the write-in part, that could have changed the vote.”
Whitteberry called it a “very strange situation.”
“My feelings were the person did not obviously want to vote straight Democratic,” she said. “They told me that I could pursue it legally, but at this point I chose not to.”
If a fight had ensued over the vote, she said “It wasn’t a fight to put me in the position.”
“It would have been a fight to change the way the ballot is done,” she said.