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 CASSOPOLIS — A hearing has been set for 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28 at the Cass County courthouse on whether a recount of the results in the Penn Township Treasurer Republican nomination race should take place.

     Incumbent Paul Rutherford filed an objection Tuesday to the recount request made last week by challenger Jodi Bucher. Rutherford won the Aug. 6 contest with 281 votes to Bucher’s 280 votes. The Cass County Board of Canvassers certified the vote on Aug. 13 and Bucher filed her request for a recount on Aug. 15.

     Cass County Clerk/Register Monica McMichaels said Thursday that the Cass County Board of Canvassers will hold a hearing on Rutherford’s objection Wednesday morning in the County Commission chambers in the courthouse annex.

     Rutherford’s attorney Zachary Larsen claimed that Bucher’s recount request was “untimely” and “unwarranted”. He said that Bucher’s petition for a recount was filed more than six days after the original vote canvass. The Board of Canvassers met initially on Aug. 8 but “inexplicably” adjourned the certification until Aug. 13.

     Larsen also outlined what he claimed was McMichael’s involvement in Bucher asking for a special election because of alleged fraud relative to a Penn Township voter turned away on Aug. 6 and directed to vote in another township. He claimed that McMichael failed to inform Rutherford of the possibility of holding a special election.

     “(A)fter Penn Township’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to Clerk McMichael on August 14, 2024, you thereafter confirmed to Penn Township’s counsel through an attorney that a special election would not be held,” the attorney wrote. “Mr. Rutherford has not been directly informed of any such decision.”

     McMichael said earlier this week that she had initially prepared to hold a special mail in election on the advice of the Michigan Bureau of Elections. They later changed their recommendation on holding a mail in election after looking again at the law which they acknowledged was confusing.

     Larsen’s letter also alleged that Bucher did not provide legitimate reasons as to why a recount should be done. The letter outlined the applicable laws involved regarding recounts as well.

     McMichael did not comment on the situation with Rutherford and Bucher but did say that election laws have changed this year on several fronts in what some have called the “largest overhaul” of election law in recent history.

For example, she noted that the law now states that clerks must county military and overseas ballots if received within six days after the election and postmarked on or before Election Day. She said that several Cass County precincts had outstanding military or overseas ballots which meant that the Board of Canvassers had to wait until Aug. 13 to certify.