The state will take the very rare step of tabulating the votes and certifying the results of Detroit’s mayoral primary.
As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta reports, this is after a local elections board refused to count some votes.
A Wayne County elections board refused to certify the election because of a technical issue with how about 18 thousand write-in votes were tallied. But Michigan Elections Director Christopher Thomas says that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
“Any error of an election official should never disenfranchise a voter,” he says.
Thomas says the county will have to pay the costs of having the state re-tabulate and certify the votes. Almost all the untabulated votes were cast for write-in candidate Mike Duggan, who appears headed for a November match-up with Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon
Thomas says his office will monitor the city’s November election, but it will not step in to supervise.