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Election commission votes to leave Ferrysburg ballots blank in upcoming election

During a special meeting of Ferrysburg Election Committee, a vote was made to keep all of the ballots blank in November, citing errors surrounding petitions.

FERRYSBURG, Mich. — A special meeting with the Ferrysburg Election Committee looked at some of the issues with Novembers ballots, including the city's clerk not initialing candidate petitions for the election before submitting them to the county.

The committee decided the best course of action would be keep the ballots blank.

Ferrysburg has six candidates running for three city commission seats, and two candidates running for mayor. None of their names will appear on the November ballot.

The two candidates running for mayor are the current city commissioner Richard Carlson and former mayor Rebecca Hopp. 

"I don't think that it's fair to the general public to make them go through the extra efforts and remember which candidates they're going to support rather than just going in there and say 'Oh I recognize that name and I recognize that name,'" said Carlson.

"If you have to uphold the city charter which is what this discussion is, and election integrity, which is what this discussion is, and election integrity, then maybe that is the conclusion that gets drawn on this," said Hopp. "I'm not certain, I know that I did my due diligence."

Hopp added that she looked at the election petitions filed by other candidates and said she found that two of the eight candidates running for city seats "did not complete their information correctly," including her opponent.

"I brought it to the city staff's attention for review and then that has led forward to the current situation that we are currently in right now," said Hopp.

Carlson said there was an error on his paperwork, but that it was a simple mistake.

"On my affidavit of identity, instead of writing 2023 I wrote 2032, I interpolated two numbers," said Carlson. 

Although the ballots will appear with no names for any of the races, the candidates will be able to enter as write-ins.

The deadline for write-in applications, two Fridays before the Nov. 7 election.

"It's very frustrating and disheartening but the bottom line is it's election integrity and election integrity needs to be in place," said Hopp.

"When we filed, we had full intentions, nothing done out of malice, just to serve the public, and that's being denied and now we have to run as a write-in," said Carlson.

13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke with an attorney for city commissioner William Montgomery, who said there were also issues surrounding signatures with his petition to run for re-election. He said there's currently a lawsuit that names the Ferrysburg City Clerk and the Ferrysburg Election Commission.

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