In Macomb County, tens of thousands of absentee ballots must be re-tabulated

Macomb County is re-tabulating about 33,000 absentee ballots from Warren and Roseville because of incorrect settings on local tabulators, the county clerk said Wednesday.

Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini said the exercise, requested by the county board of canvassers, is not expected to significantly affect vote totals or change the outcomes of any races. However, "we want it done right," Forlini said.

Ballots with "overvotes" — such as two votes for president — are supposed to be manually adjudicated after they are flagged by the tabulators. But as a result of incorrect settings, tabulators used to count absentee ballots in Warren and Roseville did not flag such ballots for adjudication and instead processed them just like ballots without overvotes, Forlini said.

He said probably only about 1,000 of the 33,000 ballots had overvotes, but they all must be re-tabulated, using tabulators with correct settings, to make sure those with overvotes are properly flagged and adjudicated.

Forlini said he doesn't know why the tabulators had incorrect settings, but "we're going to get to the bottom of it."

The problems in Macomb County follow a series of problems in Kent, Kalamazoo, Allegan, Leelanau and Calhoun counties that temporarily threw off unofficial election results around the state.

The re-tabulation of the Roseville absentee ballots was done Wednesday, but Forlini said late Wednesday he had not yet received a report on how results were impacted. The re-tabulation of the Warren ballots is set for Thursday.

Forlini said he expects the Macomb County canvass of election results will continue right up to Tuesday's state law deadline. He said the Legislature needs to look at changes that make it easier for counties to complete their canvasses in the time required by law.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or