Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A recount of votes cast in the Hartland Consolidated Schools Board of Education race starts today – which was prompted by a candidate who lost a drawing to break a tie vote.

There was a tie vote for the third open seat on the board in the November General Election, with incumbent Michelle Hemeyer and candidate Greg Keller both receiving 5,264 votes. The tie-breaker was decided by a drawing, per state election law, and Hemeyer drew the piece of paper that read “elected”. Keller drew “not elected”.

Keller filed a petition for a recount. Hemeyer then filed an objection after she learned what the financial obligation would be for the district.

Meanwhile, a representative from the Bureau of Elections will also be present to launch the recount of the statewide Proposal 3 that passed in the November General Election and enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution. The State Board of Canvassers is also conducting a recount for Proposal 2, which deals with expanded voting rights, but that will not affect anything locally.

Livingston County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley tells WHMI they have 12 polling and 12 absent voter counting boards involved in the proposal recount. Only one precinct from the Hartland school board recount will take place today, which will start at 9am. Hundley noted that because of how Genoa Township stored their absentee ballots, they’ll have to recount Genoa precinct 11 absentee ballots, after their precincts 3 and 4 involved in the state recount. Hundley says the other 12 polling and 11 absent voter counting boards for the Hartland school board recount will continue Friday morning.

The recount for the statewide proposals was requested by the conservative activist group Election Integrity Force or EIF. Its stated mission is to “advocate and educate for legislation and processes to deliver election integrity”. The group advocated for the decertification of the 2020 election and is now alleging fraud in the 2022 elections.

There has been no evidence of systemic voter fraud and various recounts, forensic audits and investigations affirmed the results of the 2020 presidential election. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and clerks across Livingston County have further testified to the safety and security of elections.

The recount will take place at the EMS Building located at 1911 Tooley Road in Howell.