'Whiplash' in Leelanau As Unreported Votes Alter Several Races

Alan Campbell had quite the roller coaster ride going from loser to winner (at least as far as elections are concerned).

As The Ticker  first reported Friday, a batch of early votes were mistakenly not included in the vote totals uploaded for public viewing on election night. Campbell, who ran for the district 5 county commission seat, looked to be on the losing end as the dust settled.

“So, of course I had to come to terms with it, come back to earth with that,” he said. “I guess (I never thought) I was going to win anyway. The seat’s been held by a Democrat for I think five terms, and I ran as a conservative.”

The bipartisan canvassing process, which is in place to certify election results, caught the error on Friday (an error that, as it turns out, was not isolated to Leelanau County). What it meant was not only good news for Campbell, but for his fellow Republicans Will Bunek and Mark Walter, who appear now to have defeated Democrats Lois Bahle and Scott Perry in districts 3 and 2, respectively.

If the new totals hold, a “blue wave” in Leelanau Couty is no more, with what appeared to be a 6-1 Democrat majority on the county board yielding to a 4-3 Republican majority. The unreported votes will not impact any state races, including Betsy Coffia’s victory over Lisa Trombley in the very hotly contested race for the 103rd state house district.   

These totals remain unofficial and will be so until the board of canvassers certifies them later this week, though the results now online do reflect the previously unreported votes.

Campbell, the longtime former owner and publisher of the Leelanau Enterprise, is glad to have won and is eager to represent citizens of the county. His opponent, Kama Ross, declined to talk to The Ticker until the results are certified.

“I think some people are being too critical about (the unreported votes) or calling it something more than it actually is. And you hate to see Kama go through it too,” Campbell says. “I’m glad the system worked, but I wish it would have worked the first time so that everybody – Democrats and Republicans – wouldn’t have had to go through that whiplash.”

Board Chair Ty Wessell, a Democrat who handily defeated Republican challenger James White, also hopes the unreported votes aren’t treated as some sort of conspiracy. He hopes the board will set politics aside and work for a better Leelanau County.

“(It was) disappointing news for some of us, but our election process works, and I absolutely know that we can trust the final results,” he tells The Ticker. “If the numbers don’t change and the Democrats only have three seats on the BOC, we all will work hard to ensure that we have the right conversations about issues that matter, work across the aisle and get things done.”

The district 3 race remains very close, with Bunek ahead of Bahle by only 7 votes. Bahle tells The Ticker she feels compelled to request a recount to make completely certain no votes were missed.

“It’s a gut punch for sure,” she says. “And, I can’t talk to the clerk on Monday due to the holiday. I owe it to my constituents to request a recount.”

Bunek credited his supporters when reached for comment. 

“I am very happy for my supporters; they worked hard and were dedicated to my campaign,” he tells The Ticker. “I give praise to our Lord, everything I’ve done and have comes from him.”

Leelanau County Clerk Michelle Crocker says a recount can’t be requested until after the votes are certified by the board of canvassers, which she expects to happen before the end of the week.

Crocker had a very rough Friday, reaching out to candidates within hours of the error being discovered.

“I really didn’t want someone having a media call or something before I could get to them,” she tells The Ticker. “I couldn’t (connect) with everyone, but I tried.”

Ultimately, Crocker says this is a good (albeit unfortunate) lesson as to why county (and other) election results are always labeled unofficial until certified by the board of canvassers, which in Leelanau is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans.

“This is their job,” she says. “Everyone wants these sudden results, and they want results so quickly, but there’s a big reason it says unofficial on those (initial) results.”

Crocker says she’s prepared to give any candidate who contacts her a breakdown of what exactly went wrong.