Lansing — A Michigan Democratic Party committee rejected Tuesday a challenge to the results of its April 19 convention, declaring incumbents Brianna Scott and Kelly Tebay Zemke the endorsed candidates for the Michigan State University Board of Trustees.
A third contender, state Sen. Sylvia Santana of Detroit, lost to Tebay Zemke for the second and final spot on the November ballot by just 15 weighted votes out of more than 5,600 in the initial tally from the convention.
Santana appealed her defeat; her campaign contended there were material errors in the convention’s vote-counting process, and her team requested an audit of all the results by an outside firm.
However, the state Democratic Party released a brief statement Tuesday afternoon saying its appeals committee had rejected Santana’s filing. There was little other explanation provided.
“The appeal regarding this year’s endorsement convention was dismissed in accordance with the committee’s appeals process,” said Leah Leszczynski, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Democratic Party. “We thank every candidate who ran for our endorsement. We look forward to coming together to elect Democrats up and down the ballot this November.”
The party used an electronic voting system at the convention that allowed people to vote over their cellphones or tablets for candidates to endorse for spots on the general election ballot for an array of state offices. People were supposed to attend the convention in person to vote.
Santana’s campaign had flagged more than 200 voters who, it said, participated from outside the convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, based on location data from the internet connection they used.
But party leadership has stood by the results of the convention and argued that Internet Protocol addresses alone weren’t sufficient to disqualify a voter.
The Detroit News has identified one Democrat who acknowledged voting from outside of the Detroit convention hall, despite the party’s rules on in-person voting, and 10 Democrats who said they voted at the convention but whose votes weren’t reflected in the initial tallies.
A handful of top Democrats, including Attorney General Dana Nessel and Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, had called for an outside audit of the convention’s results. But the state party’s press release indicated no such review would happen. Instead, the party released final vote results from the convention publicly for the first time.
Under those numbers, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II won the secretary of state endorsement with 59% of the vote over Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, who got 21%, and former Lottery Commissioner Suzanna Shkreli, who got 20%.
For attorney general, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit got 59% while Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald got 41%.
For two seats on the University of Michigan Board of Regents, incumbent Paul Brown got 43% and lawyer Amir Makled got 39%. Incumbent Jordan Acker finished in third place with 18%.
For two seats on the MSU Board of Trustees, Scott got 38%, Tebay Zemke got 31.01%, and Santana got 30.78%.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan Democratic Party panel rejects convention challenge
Reporting by Craig Mauger, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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