FERRYSBURG, Mich. — Some voters in Ottawa County will get blank ballots when they head to the polls this fall, because of an apparent clerical error.
In a 2-1 vote, the Ferrysburg Election Commission invalidated the petitions for its mayoral and city council candidates during a meeting on Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of things they should have done differently,” said Herman Hoffman, an attorney.
Hoffman represents William Montgomery, a current city council member who wants to run for re-election in November.
He says that earlier this summer, the Ottawa County Clerk’s Office received information about an alleged issue with his client’s petition.
As they investigated whether it could remove Montgomery’s name from the ballot, officials also learned that the city’s charter requires its clerk, a role currently held by Amber Schaner, to initial petitions before sending them to the county, which she did not do.
In an attempt to follow the charter, Schaner and another election commission member decided to disqualify each petition. She declined to comment further about the vote to FOX 17.
“What she should have done was do her job,” said Hoffman. “If there was any issue, then she should have notified Mr. Montgomery in writing as the city charter requires, and given him an opportunity to cure that, cure any issue with his ballot.”
Hoffman filed a complaint in Ottawa County Circuit Court on Wednesday against Schaner and the election commission to try and ensure his client’s name still appears on the ballot. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m.
Other candidates FOX 17 spoke to say that they should not be penalized for someone else’s error.
“I’m kind of disappointed that we go to all the effort and get on the ballot and then they throw us off,” said Michael Dewitt, a Ferrysburg city council candidate. “It’s a legitimate reason, but it's no fault of our own.”
Dewitt, David Brockmyre, who is also running for city council, and Rebecca Hopp, a Ferrysburg mayoral candidate, said that they did not learn about the petition invalidations until after the vote happened.
Candidates who still want to run can do so as a write-in nominee, but some are concerned about the process.
“Having their name on the ballot is critically important,” said Brockmyre. “For me, in my case, I'm not really that worried about it. The thing I am worried about is, I don't know the rules for disqualifying somebody's vote if they misspelled my name, which is not easy to spell. It's not common, it's not a name like Smith, so that's a challenge for me as a candidate. That's a hurdle I now have to overcome.”
They hope voters still turn out too.
“We will get through this,” said Hopp. “This shouldn't stop anybody from stopping by, visiting, [and] enjoying Ferrysburg because it's an amazing place.”
