Stories indexed with the term ‘recount’

Recounting the Rabhi-Fried Recount

Last Thursday, a hand recount of ballots was conducted in the District 11 Democratic primary election for Washtenaw County commissioner. Initial results from the Aug 3. election had yielded Yousef Rabhi as the winner in a field of four candidates – by one vote. The candidate with 997 votes counted on election day, compared to Rabhi’s 998, was Mike Fried, who asked that the ballots be recounted.

Alice Ralph Jan BenDor Conan Smith Mike Fried

Before the Aug. 26 recounting got started, Conan Smith (left), a current county commissioner acting as one of Youself Rabhi's official "watchers," chats with Mike Fried (right), who'd asked for the recount. Shooting video for the Michigan Election Reform Alliance was Jan BenDor. Seated in the background is Alice Ralph, who came third in the balloting for the District 11 seat.

The process started around 12:30 p.m., and about four hours later in the lower level conference room of the county building at 200 N. Main St., the final ballots had been recounted – the last ones coming from Precinct 2 in Ann Arbor Township. [District 11 covers parts of southeast Ann Arbor and one precinct in Ann Arbor Township.]

Fried summed up the afternoon, conceding to Rabhi – who was still the winner after the recounting, with a relatively comfortable margin of two votes: “Well, congratulations!”

Fried continued with compliments all around for the board of canvassers and the election inspectors who handled the recounting, saying he was amazed that they had finished in four hours.

The board of canvassers consists of Tony DeMott (R), Melodie Gable (R), Ulla Roth (D), and Carol Kuhnke (D). The news was first reported by The Ann Arbor Chronicle live from the scene: “Rabhi Prevails on Recount.”

The work might have been completed sooner, had it not been for a snafu with the Ann Arbor Township ballot box. Initially, the box for Precinct 1, not Precinct 2, had been delivered for recounting. Getting access to the correct box depended on tracking down someone with a key to the room in the township clerk’s office, where the ballots are stored.

Recounted totals for the four candidates: Yousef Rabhi, 999; Mike Fried, 997; Alice Ralph, 280; LuAnne Bullington, 108.

The afternoon included a range of scenarios that illuminated some of the more arcane aspects of the voting system. Also in attendance was Joe Baublis, who will be on the ballot for the Republicans in November for the District 11 county board seat. He posed a question at the start of the proceedings: How much will this recount cost taxpayers? [Full Story]

Recount Confirms: Kunselman Wins

Greden Kunselman recount Ward 3 city of Ann Arbor city council election

Matt Yankee, deputy clerk with Washtenaw County, marks ticks in columns as candidate names are read aloud during the recount of the Aug. 4 Democratic primary election for the Ward 3 city council seat. (Photo by the writer.)

Friday morning in the lower level of the county building at 200 N. Main, Letitia Kunselman held her cell phone out in the general direction of Melodie Gable, chair of Washtenaw County’s board of canvassers. Gable was wrapping up about 90 minutes of ballot recounting from the Ward 3 Democratic primary for Ann Arbor city council. By that time, her official announcement stated an outcome that everyone in the room already knew.

We’d followed the hand recount of paper ballots table-by-table, as one precinct after the other confirmed individual vote totals from the initial Aug. 4 results.

What Gable reported was exactly the news that Letitia Kunselman’s husband Stephen – on the other end of the cell phone line – wanted to hear: his own 511 votes compared to Leigh Greden’s 505 had been confirmed, leaving Kunselman the winner of the primary. The third candidate, LuAnne Bullington, picked up one vote in the recount in precincts 3-4 and 3-7 (these precincts shared a single polling location on election day), bringing her total to 382.

We include in our report the vote totals, some anecdotal bits from the morning recount, but more importantly, a brief look at the impact that Greden’s departure will have on council’s committee composition. [Full Story]

Anatomy of a Recount

The duffel bag containing ballots from precinct 5-4.

Early Tuesday, the lower-level conference room of the County Building at 200 N. Main was filled with the scent of freshly-groomed election inspectors, board of canvassers members, candidates and their volunteer observers, county workers, plus the odor of institutional coffee wafting from a big silver urn. The combination amounted to a distinctive smell, which The Chronicle loves … the smell of democracy in the morning. [Full Story]

Civic News Ticker

Brown Recommended for N. Main Group

At its May 23, 2012 meeting, the Ann Arbor public art commission (AAPAC) unanimously recommended that Connie Rizzolo Brown be nominated for a position on a task force to study the corridor along North Main Street and the Huron River. That recommendation will be forwarded to mayor John Hieftje.

The task force was established by the city council at its May 7, 2012 meeting, with membership to include the following: one member of the park advisory commission, one member of the planning commission, one resident representing the Water Hill neighborhood, one resident representing the North Central neighborhood, one resident from the Old Fourth Ward, one resident representing the Broadway/Pontiac neighborhood, two business and property owners from the affected area, and one member of the Huron River Watershed Council.

At its May 21 meeting, the two sponsors of the resolution that created the task force – Ward 1 councilmembers Sabra Briere and Sandi Smith – proposed adding three additional representatives: a member of the city council, someone from the boating/fishing community of river users, a representative from the Huron River Citizens Association. Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), who also serves on AAPAC, then proposed an amendment to add an AAPAC member to the task force. The AAPAC addition was passed by council on a 6-5 vote. [See Chronicle coverage: "Positions Added to North Main Task Force"] Appointments are expected to be made at the council’s June 4 meeting.

At AAPAC’s May 23 meeting, Derezinski told commissioners that “basically, we need someone at the table.”

The task force is charged with delivering a report to the city council more than a year from now – by July 31, 2013 – that describes “a vision to create/complete/enhance pedestrian and bike connection from downtown to Bandemer and Huron River Drive, increase public access to the river-side amenities of existing parks in the North Main-Huron River corridor, ease traffic congestion at Main and Depot at certain times of a day and recommend use of MichCon property at Broadway; …”

Earlier than that – by the end of 2012 – the task force is to make recommendations on the use of the city-owned 721 N. Main parcel.

Brown has served on AAPAC since early 2009, and has chaired the commission’s projects committee. She is a principal of Rizzolo Brown Studio, an Ann Arbor architecture firm.

This brief was filed from the basement conference room of city hall at 301 E. Huron, where AAPAC held its meeting. A more detailed report will follow.

Annexation Rezonings Get Final OK

Water, Sewer Rate Bumps Get Initial OK

Ann Arbor Accepts Sustainability Grant

Allen Creek Preschool Site Plan OK’d

Positions Added to North Main Task Force

Council Gives Initial OK for Sidewalk Repair Law

Old Media Watch

A2: Race for the Cure

The Detroit News published a column by Jenn McKee, entertainment writer for AnnArbor.com, about why she’s not participating in Saturday’s Race for the Cure, a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation: ”This past February, when news broke about the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to pull grants from Planned Parenthood – grants that fund breast cancer screenings for low-income women – I felt angry, betrayed and disappointed by an organization I’d supported for years. Even though Komen eventually reversed its decision, after days of heated debate and pushback, I didn’t feel elated about, or even satisfied with, the reversal. Not because I suspected that the fight wasn’t over for good but because I lost my innocence regarding an organization that has had great personal meaning for me.” [Source]

Scio: Camp Take Notice

Pittsfield Twp.: Plane Crash

A2: Restaurant Review

Serious Eats reviews the burgers and patty melts at Zingerman’s Roadhouse. The reviewer praises both, but writes: “As good as the burger was, the gut-busting patty melt was better. …The thick slices of rye bread, which naturally comes from Zingerman’s Bakehouse, is simply the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. It’s loaded with flavor, has a particularly thick and chewy crust around a soft interior, and will make virtually any sandwich ever invented taste better. The mountain of grilled onions and wild mushrooms add a sweet and juicy umami bomb to the patty melt, and the baby Swiss from Deppeler Cheese Factory in Monroe, Wisconsin, brings a nice coating of creaminess.” [Source]

Washtenaw: Skunk Rabies

A2: Music

A2-Ypsi: May 8 Election

Coordinated Funding Clarified

An article about the May 16, 2012 meeting of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners included a mention of the coordinated funding model – a partnership of the county, city of Ann Arbor, United Way of Washtenaw County, Washtenaw Urban County, and Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation. We clarify here that the funds are not “pooled” together in a way that makes it impossible to associate funding from a particular agency with a particular nonprofit. Rather, the coordinated funding model allows for each of the funding partners to make specific allocations to specific nonprofits, at the discretion of the funding partner. We note the clarification here, and have changed the wording of the original article.

His Name is Ralph

2008 Ward 5 Was Hohnke vs. Floyd

UM Parking Structure: 700 Spaces

Current 618 S. Main Proposal Clarified

Name Spelled Wrong

City Council Approval Not Required