When officials in Northern Michigan's Leelanau County reviewed last week’s election results, they found an error in the numbers: More than 3,000 votes were not initially reported on the county’s website.
Correcting the mistake changed the outcome of several local races.
The Leelanau County Board of Canvassers caught a discrepancy last Friday, after paper results from voting machines at one site did not match unofficial results posted online.
County Clerk Michelle Crocker said the votes were properly counted, just not uploaded online. It was only the public-facing tally that was wrong, she said, and the error was corrected the day it was found.
"I want people to be assured all the votes were tabulated. Everything was accounted for. They just simply weren't in that report. And as soon as the canvassers discovered it, it was done."
Crocker said that's why the initial results of elections are, officially, "unofficial."
"We just can't emphasize it enough — the state said it, the county clerks say it: They're unofficial results until the canvas is complete and the results are certified," she said.
The races for drain commissioner and three county commission seats initially appeared to go to Democrats, but will now likely go to Republicans, flipping control of the county commission.
