Philip H. DeVoe/Collegian
After recounting ballots cast in Nov. 8’s general election, Hillsdale County election officials discovered 19 votes for write-in candidates not reflected on Election Magic, the website centralizing and disseminating the vote data.
Citizens of Hillsdale’s Ward 4 and Allen requested the recount during the Nov. 9 canvasser meeting after seeing zero votes were recorded for write-in candidates in their districts.
“I know for a fact six people voted for Evan McMullin, but the final count said zero votes for any write-in candidates at all,” said Allen resident Professor of History Mark Kalthoff, who requested a recount.
After a recount of the Ward 4 ballots, officials discovered seven votes for McMullin and one vote for Laurence Kotlikoff. There were also four votes for unauthorized write-in candidates, meaning they were not counted: two went to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., one to Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and one to Matthew Loren.
In Allen, the only write-in votes went to McMullin; there were seven in total.
Hillsdale County Clerk Marney Kast said human error caused the miscount, owing partially to how vote tabulation machines work. The machines do not detect the race for which the voter filled in the write-in bubble, leading most ballot counters to check only for such votes in the county sheriff race, because Tamara Dow’s late reentrance into the race as a write-in threatened a bigger shakeup than those in the presidential race.
“We do want every vote to count, and without these citizens coming forward, we may have never known that these totals were inaccurate,” Kast said.
Kalthoff said write-in candidates should have access to an accurate representation of their supporters as a reflection of the work they put into their campaigns.
“Those who spend time or energy promoting themselves are unable to see who heard their message,” Kalthoff said. “All the zeros on the vote tally make me wonder if this issue is more widespread throughout the country.”
Preventing miscounts requires changing the hours and schedules ballot counters work on election night. Kast said the county will address these issues.
“Ultimately, we’d have to ask whether ‘new’ is ‘better’ and look to those who have expertise in this area about how we can fix the problem,” Professor of Politics Adam Carrington said.