This post was last updated at 2:32 p.m. 11/11/24. See the national picture here, and Michigan’s statewide numbers here.
Update: Corrected unofficial vote tallies for the Leelanau County Commission have been updated below as of 2:25 p.m. on Monday, Nov 11.
As the Leelanau Ticker reported Friday, unofficial results posted last week to the county's dashboard were inaccurate.
Northern Michiganders returned state Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) to office, and made decisions in a variety of local races.
Coffia wins the 103rd
Democratic incumbent State Rep. Betsy Coffia has won her race against Republican challenger Lisa Trombley according to the AP, which called the 103rd House District race at 2:25 a.m. on Wednesday.
Counties are reporting election results:
Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet, Leelanau, Manistee, Grand Traverse, Wexford
IPR wasn’t able to reach Coffia for comment on Wednesday, but in a statement online she thanked campaign volunteers for their work and said she is excited to serve another term.
Putting Trombley into the seat was a key part of the GOP strategy to topple slim Democratic majorities in Lansing. Two years ago the race for the 103rd was tight — Coffia won by fewer than 800 votes in 2022 — and Republicans hoped that slim margin would lean in their favor this year.
Trombley was with supporters in Traverse City on Tuesday evening.
“I feel I started as a 10-point underdog, so I'm very proud that we have pulled it — I think we've made it neck and neck,” she said in an interview with IPR before the race was called. “Hopefully I win, but either way, I think we all need to figure out: How do we move forward together? The issues facing our state are really — are serious.”
According to the state election results, Coffia received a little under 53% of the vote, while Trombley got just over 47%.
Fairbairn wins the 107th
Parker Fairbairn, the 25-year-old GOP organizer from Petoskey, has won the 107th Michigan State House seat after unseating the incumbent in the August primaries and overtaking Democratic challenger Jodi Decker.
The Associated Press called the race for the 25-year-old candidate around 3:30 a.m.
“Words can't really adequately express my gratitude to all who entrusted me with this awesome burden,” he said Wednesday morning.
He also thanked Decker, who works in child advocacy in Sault Ste. Marie. This is the second time Decker has run and lost in the district.
Unseating Friske
The 107th House District, which encompasses the tourism communities of Charlevoix and Emmet counties and parts of the Eastern Upper Peninsula, including Sault Ste. Marie, is currently represented by Neil Friske.
Over his two-year term Friske made a name for himself as a “no-compromise” Republican. He joined the House Freedom Caucus, a handful of hardline conservatives who tend to vote strictly on party lines.
He currently serves on no legislative committees, which brought scorn from his Republican colleagues like U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman and state Sen. John Damoose.
Both Republicans endorsed Fairbairn over Friske in the Aug. 6 primary elections.
All the while, Fairbairn ran as a more moderate alternative to Friske. He said Wednesday morning that while he still maintains a conservative agenda, he won’t shy away from working across the aisle.
“At the end of the day we’re Americans, we’re Michiganders and there’s more that unites us than divides us,” he said.
In a previous interview with IPR News, Fairbairn said voters in his district were "tired of the drama” around Friske.
Friske was arrested in the early hours of June 20 this summer near a home he owns in Lansing. More than 4 months later, no charges have been filed against the lawmaker and police are still investigating "for a felony-level offense" after reports of shots fired.
Police records show Friske was arrested on suspicion of committing sexual assault and felony assault, as well as a firearms offense.
Days after Friske was released from police custody, he told a crowd of voters that he was "framed."
In September, Ingham County turned its investigation to the state attorney general due to “potential crimes in multiple county jurisdictions.” The investigation is ongoing.
“This campaign started when many reached out and encouraged me to run for office again,” Fairbairn said in a press release marking his victory. “The campaign that ensued was challenging and full of surprises for sure, but we emerged victorious because the will of the people will not be silenced.”
Jodi Decker, the Democrat, conceded early Wednesday morning but said she’s worried about the future of her district with a Republican majority in the state House.
“I’m still in shock,” she said.
A new clerk in Antrim County
One of the most contentious local races in northern Michigan ended last night with the candidate that appeared on the ballots claiming victory.
Victoria Bishop, a Republican business owner and GOP organizer will become Antrim County Clerk starting next year.
"I'm looking forward to serving all the People of our beloved County and implementing new technologies to make all areas of the Clerk's office more efficient at lower costs to the taxpayers of our County," she said in an email to IPR.
She ran against Sheryl Guy, the incumbent clerk who’s worked in Antrim county government for over 40 years. Guy launched a write-in campaign earlier this summer, putting aside retirement plans.
But shortly after 5 a.m., Guy saw unofficial results that showed Bishop receiving just over 9,000 votes, compared to her 5,500 write-in votes.
Just over 17,000 people cast a ballot in Antrim County — a 71.72% voter turnout rate, according to the unofficial results. That’s slightly shy of 2020’s record 72.66% turnout rate, but this year could still exceed it. The tally won’t be finalized until official results are in.
More than half of eligible voters in Antrim County cast their ballots before election day either by mail or in-person.
As of publication, Bishop has not returned requests for comment on her victory.
“At least they won’t question these results,” Guy said in her office this morning.
National focus, local stakes
The focus of the race goes back to 2020 when Sheryl Guy and her staff made an error in tabulating results that showed Joe Biden had flipped Antrim County when he, in fact, did not.
Experts later found the mistake was unintentionally caused by a failure to update tabulators when a candidate was added to a local race, essentially throwing off the spreadsheet where the votes are tallied.
The mistake was fixed and official results showed Donald Trump had won Antrim County with 61% of votes.
But the mishap turned Antrim County into a hotbed of conspiracy theories around Dominion Voting machines — the devices used to tabulate votes. On Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump pointed to Antrim County as a reason to doubt the 2020 election.
“I cared about the people. I served the public well. I worked here with appreciation ... that I never lost my integrity and that it was always to do the job and do the job as best I could.”
Sheryl Guy
outgoing Antrim Co. clerk
After November 2020, there was legal drama with the Trump team and a lawsuit from Randy Bishop, Victoria Bishop’s husband, and host of the conservative radio show “Your Defending Fathers.”
He alleged the county erased his information from voting machines and sued for $1 million. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
All this led to involvement from the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee, which concluded in a report that the mishap was the result of human error, not a systemic issue with Dominion Voting machines.
Dominion is the same company that won $787 million in settlements against Fox News and other organizations that broadcast false statements about the company’s machines.
But the Bishops still have concerns with how the mishap was handled.
Victoria Bishop won a five-way contest in the local Republican primaries. She launched a campaign that promises to “restore election integrity in Antrim County.” Her campaign handouts say she wants to do that by hand-counting every ballot on election days and scrubbing dead people from the voter rolls.
Guy launched her write-in campaign this summer as a last-ditch effort to keep the office from her opponent - who she calls an “election denier."
What’s next
Guy was first to call the race by conceding in the early morning hours.
Since she was a candidate, she was not allowed to handle any election materials that arrived at the county building but she was able to ask her staff for updates throughout the night.
She spent much of her time assigning tasks to her volunteers, welcoming workers as they arrived from townships and taking interviews from the media.
Aside from a small issue with some write-in totals in Mancelona township, she said this election went “extremely well.” She expressed gratitude for her staff and all election workers.
“It is just a long process and clerks work really hard whether it's your county or your local [township] clerks,” Guy said. “People need to know how much heart and soul clerks put into elections.”
“We think (Victoria Bishop)'s going to do a fabulous job. She’s got to get some good people to surround her and help her in there, because one person alone doesn’t do it.”
Marv Rubingh
chair, Antrim Co. GOP
Reached Wednesday morning, Antrim County Republican Party Chair Marv Rubingh said the election result was “God at work.”
Rubingh said he expects Bishop will make good on her campaign promise to change the way Antrim County runs its elections.
“She’s all about election integrity and transparency and honesty,” Rubingh said. “We think she’s going to do a fabulous job. She’s got to get some good people to surround her and help her in there, because one person alone doesn’t do it.”
Deputy Clerk Connie Wing plans to retire along with Sheryl Guy. Wing’s job is not an elected position.
“I cared about the people. I served the public well,” Guy said. “I worked here with appreciation ... that I never lost my integrity and that it was always to do the job and do the job as best I could.”
On his radio show Wednesday morning, Victoria Bishop’s husband Randy, known on air as “Trucker Randy,” blasted Guy for running against Bishop in the first place.
“She graduated high school on a Friday night when she was 18-years-old and started working there Monday morning, the next day, she’d been in the county building 43 years, blah blah blah blah blah,” Randy Bishop said on his radio program. “If you wanted to serve four more years as clerk, you should have challenged Vicky in the primary. But you didn’t.”
Local ballot measures
Traverse City voters passed City Proposals 1 and 2, which change how the city approves funding for development projects downtown.
The proposals restrict the ability to use tax increment financing (TIF). With their passage, all extensions and modifications of TIF plans will have to be voted on by the public.
TIF money has funded things like new parking garages downtown and redevelopment of the Grand Traverse Commons.
"The vote yesterday, from a TIF perspective, is unprecedented in the State of Michigan," said Harry Burkholder, the executive director of the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority. "So this is something that the city, in collaboration with the DDA, will have to figure out what are those next steps."
One of the city’s TIFs, TIF 97, is set to expire in 2027. Now, residents must vote on whether to extend it before then.
Burkholder said the DDA will work with the city’s attorney, clerk and commissioners to determine how and when a vote will be held.
Michigan’s Attorney General also suggested over the summer that Proposal 1 might violate state law.
Separately, Harbor Springs voters passed a repeal of their new zoning ordinance.
The ordinance had sought to allow accessory dwelling units and duplexes in the town, among other changes to the downtown district and the city’s stormwater management systems.
Harbor Springs also elected Tom Graham as its new mayor. He was endorsed by the group advocating for the zoning repeal.
What voters said
It was raining across much of the region, including in Central Lake, where a steady stream of cars went in and out of Central Lake's polling place on Tuesday afternoon.
Resident Darlene Kendall is a mother and preschool teacher. Despite feeling demoralized by recent election cycles, Kendall said she maintains pride in voting and that she wants her daughters to feel the same.
"My oldest daughter thinks it's a waste of time. I've tried to explain to her that I don't feel that way," she said. "Especially right now with women's issues on the ballot, I feel like it's really important for her voice to be heard."
Kendall voted for Kamala Harris. She also voted for Sheryl Guy to remain the Antrim County clerk by writing her name on the ballot.
Michael Hilgendorf, who works in construction, said his concerns are mainly on the economy, which he says was better under Donald Trump.
"Now, I'm barely paying for my Subaru. I'm struggling. I have two kids now and I'm barely making it every time I do my budget," he said. "My bills take over before I get to food. So, I have to figure out how to cut back on electricity and other things."
Those sentiments were echoed in Garfield Township on Tuesday — Harris voters talking about rights and concerns about another Trump presidency, and Trump voters worried about the economy, immigration and other issues.
Voter Bob Schafer, who cast his ballot at Grand Traverse Metro Fire Station on Silver Lake Road, told IPR he’s had a lot of conversations with other voters.
“They weren’t for the same candidate, but I thanked them, because that’s America. I ended up having a great conversation even though they were for the wrong team,” he said.
Schafer said he also had eight different canvassers come to his front door in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
“A little bit much,” he said, “but it’s neat that people are out and they’re really involved this year, it seems like.”
