Lawsuit temporarily halts ballot retabulation in disputed Michigan House race

Rep. Jim Haadsma (L) and Steve Frisbie (R) | Michigan House and campaign photos

The retabulation of votes continued Wednesday in Calhoun County after a lawsuit briefly delayed the process that will determine the winner of a key state House seat.

At issue is the race for the 44th state House District in which incumbent state Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) faced off against Republican challenger Calhoun County Commissioner Steve Frisbie.

Frisbie filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Calhoun County Circuit Court seeking to stop the retabulation of absentee ballots in Battle Creek. The Calhoun County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to retabulate those ballots after an error resulted in approximately 2,800 absentee ballots being overridden and not counted.

Haadsma called the lawsuit an attempt to stop the accurate counting of ballots "potentially disenfranchising thousands of voters" in Battle Creek.

"I want to see every vote accurately counted, regardless of whether it impacts the results of the election," said Haadsma. "Confidence in our elections is essential to the health of our democracy, and the people of Battle Creek deserve to know that every effort was made to ensure the accurate tabulation of their votes."

Amber LeClear, the Calhoun County director of communications, confirmed for the Advance that the retabulation was halted for about an hour Wednesday morning after the suit was filed, but resumed following a second unanimous vote by the county board of canvassers that it should proceed.

Requests for comment to both Frisbie's campaign and attorney Cole Lussier, who filed the lawsuit on Frisbie's behalf, were not returned Wednesday.

Initial results in the election showed Haadsma lost to Frisbee by 1,381 votes.

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 Advance late Sunday those results were "admittedly wrong."

"Until the Board of County Canvassers fulfills their duty to rerun the ballots from Battle Creek, correct the errors, count the overseas and provisional ballots, nothing is official," said Trebilcock. "Any updates you see from anyone other than the Board of Canvassers are nothing more than educated guesses. This race is not over."

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.