Hold Your Horses -- GOP Not Winners in Hamburg, Green Oak, Putnam Just Yet

Some champagne corks were being popped on Tuesday night (August 5, 2008) when the results of the Republican primary came in. There were lots of assumptions being made about who had just won "election" by virtue of winning the GOP nominations -- specifically in Hamburg Township.

Victors in the GOP primary were told they had won the clerk, treasurer, and trustee posts because the Democrats had no candidates on the ballot.

But hold your horses, folks. It ain't over till it's over.

It is true there were no Democratic candidates on the ballot, but the Livingston County Democratic Party did wage an aggressive write-in campaign for three township candidates and Livingston County commissioner. The township candidates -- Debby Buckland for clerk, Linda Taylor for treasurer, and Shannon Piper for trustee -- each collected in the neighborhood of 200 votes. Dave Buckland picked up 175 for county commission in district 8, which does not include precinct 3 of the township. The Livingston County Board of Canvassers is reviewing the unofficial primary results, including the write-ins, so we won't know for awhile whether in fact enough write-in votes are valid.

The Livingston Press and Argus has picked up on the fact on Thursday (August 7, 2008) that the races are not over. But it is assuming that way too many votes are needed for write-ins -- namely, 200, based on county-wide voting totals. But in reality, the proper figure for calculating the write-in threshold is probably only several dozen because it is based on township -- and not county-wide -- voting totals.

Meanwhile, races for Green Oak supervisor and Putnam Township supervisor are also still alive, due to the write-in campaigns of Matt Evans and Mike Porath, respectively. Each of those collected healthy write-in totals, too.

The number of write-in votes all these candidates earned indicates voter interest in reducing Republican rule in their townships is high. These are likely to be competitive races in November -- so let's put the cork back in the champagne bottles for awhile longer.