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CASSOPOLIS — The recount of the contest for the Republican nomination for Penn Township Treasurer can move forward after action Wednesday morning by the Cass County Board of Canvassers.

In the vote certified by the board Aug. 13, incumbent Paul Rutherford was ahead of challenger Jodi Bucher by one vote.

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. Bucher claimed that one Penn Township resident was turned away from voting due to a state software error that showed her living in a different township.

Wednesday, the Board of Canvassers heard from special county counsel Eric Doster as well as attorneys for both Rutherford and Bucher before making their decision. Board members voted unanimously to go forward with the recount and reject Rutherford’s objections to it.

County Clerk/Register Monica McMichael said that the recount will take place soon and will be open to the public. She said the county has to wait for the deadline to pass for recount requests for state level races before scheduling the recount. The state certified state level races on Monday, Aug. 26.

Doster started off Wednesday’s hearing with a review of the specifics of the case as well as relevant state law and court cases. His practice is based in Okemos near Lansing and his specialty is election law. He was the lead attorney for Donald Trump during the 2016 Michigan recount brought by candidate Jill Stein.

Doster went through the objections to the recount raised by Rutherford’s attorneys and presented his conclusions on each one. Rutherford’s attorneys claimed Bucher’s recount petition wasn’t filed timely and did not provide legitimate and specific reasons for why the recount should be done.

     Doster said Bucher’s petition was submitted timely, noting that election law states that a recount petition must be filed within six days of the canvass of the vote being completed. He disagreed with Rutherford attorney James Fleming who said the petition had to be submitted within six days of the start of the vote canvass on Aug. 8.

     McMichael explained the changes brought about by the passage of statewide election changes in 2022 which required the Board of Canvassers to delay certification until Aug. 13. The changes allow absentee voters to “cure” ballot mistakes and also allows time for overseas and military ballots to be received.

     On the question of if Bucher had to provide factual information about fraud or mistakes, Doster said Rutherford’s attorneys cited the Michigan Supreme Court ruling in the Trump-Stein recount case but didn’t provide the full quote. He said “bare allegations” were deemed sufficient in the ruling and added that different rules apply to local versus state recounts.

     Fleming had a different take on the recount request. “Holding public office is a sacred trust and unless laws are followed to a ‘T’, that trust crumbles,” he said. “You have to follow the law.”

     He continued to maintain that Bucher’s recount request was not submitted in a timely manner and questioned the Board of Canvassers decision to not certify the results on Aug. 8 but wait to Aug. 13. He added that Rutherford had not been informed of the reasons for the delay in vote certification that McMichael outlined Wednesday.

     He also said Bucher didn’t supply facts to go along with her claims of fraud or mistakes. “Her petition was void of substantive allegations and doesn’t warrant conducting a recount,” he said.

     Bucher attorney Jeffrey Wiggins agreed with Fleming’s statement about the importance of public trust in elections but added that part of preserving public trust in elections involves preserving people’s right to vote and have their vote counted.

     He said the only requirements to have a recount is to file a petition timely, state what office results should be recounted and swearing under oath that the petitioner believes that fraud or mistakes have taken place.

     “One vote is as close as you can get without tying,” Wiggins said. “You only have to say that you believe that a mistake or fraud has taken place and you’ve been aggrieved by it … A person has a legal right to a recount.”