Flint’s Third Ward Election: Awaiting Clarity
Flint’s third ward remains without a council representative as the election results from Tuesday remain unresolved. This vacancy has persisted since last September.
In a surprising turn, 44 percent of the votes were cast for write-in candidates, surpassing the votes garnered by the official contenders, Beverly Biggs-Leavy and AC Dumas, whose names appeared on the ballot.
The determination of whether any write-in candidates have accumulated enough votes to secure the position is still pending.
The Genesee County Board of Canvassers is set to embark on the task of examining and certifying the write-in ballots starting Wednesday, a process that may extend into the following week.
Previously, Michigan Public reported on the division within the Flint city council following the death of Councilman Quincy Murphy last September. The council has been split into factions, failing to appoint a temporary successor, which led to missing a crucial deadline for passing the city budget. This nearly resulted in mass layoffs of city employees, as noted in a previous report.
Both Biggs-Leavy and Dumas secured 165 votes during the primary election earlier this year. The eventual winner will gain the critical fifth vote needed to resolve the deadlock that has hindered city operations for almost a year, as detailed in another report.
LaShawn Johnson, who is an official write-in candidate, narrowly missed advancing in the primary, finishing just two votes behind the leading candidates.
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