Judge Joyce Draganchuk
Just when you thought we might see final a resolution to the infamous Detroit mayoral primary of 2013, something happened.
The Detroit Free Press reported that an Ingham County circuit judge in Lansing Thursday put a halt to the state review of the contested 20,000 write-in ballots as a result of a lawsuit filed by D. Etta Wilcoxon, a candidate for Detroit city clerk, who is challenging the state’s legal authority to handle the contested ballots.
Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk put a halt to the process and set a show-cause hearing at 2 p.m. Tuesday in her court, Matt Helms the Freep reported. The state was close to wrapping up the whole thing, and reports had it that the final results were to be announced by Friday.
Helms writes in the Freep:
Wilcoxon said this afternoon that her suit argues the Board of State Canvassers has “no legal authority to do what they’ve been doing for the last several days. This is something that Janice Winfrey should have done on behalf of the residents of the city of Detroit but failed to do.”
Wilcoxon was referring to Janice Winfrey, the city clerk whose office said former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan won the Aug. 6 primary with 44,395 write-in votes, defeating Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon. Wilcoxon, who has run unsuccessfully for other city offices, lost to Winfrey in the primary.
-- Allan Lengel
