By Mike Kruzman & Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Incumbents prevailed in local city council races during Tuesday’s primary election.

In the Brighton City Council race, there were nine candidates on the ballot with eight moving on to compete for four open seats in the November General Election. Incumbent Renee Pettingill was the top overall vote-getter with 739 ballots cast in her favor, while challenger Bill Albert had the next highest with 534, followed by incumbents Jon Emaus (532) and Kris Tobbe (460). Also advancing were challengers Jordan Genso (448), Susan Bakhaus (426), Jennifer Winningham (351) and Paul Gipson (350). Daniel Huth finished ninth with 316 votes and did not make the cut.

In Howell, the top 6 vote-getters in order were incumbent Jan Lobur (510), challengers Jacob Schlittler (407) and Kevin Shopshire (366), and incumbent Jeannette Ambrose (334). Also advancing was Luke Wilson (311) and Lee Ann Blazejewski (274). Alexander Clos (267) and Kriston Detmer (220) did not gain enough votes to move on.

Howell City Clerk Angie Guillen told WHMI everything went well on Election Day and they completed all of their end of election night duties by 10pm – noting they did not have any problems or difficulties with the election. She says the City sent out 2,339 applications for absentee ballots. Of those, 1,030 were returned and issued a ballot - with 754 being returned for the election. Guillen said she’s happy with the turnout as they have not had a primary election for council in the last 20 years – adding she’s “passionate about residents exercising their right to vote and protecting the integrity of my elections so it was a good day!”

Also on the primary ballot were two operating millage renewal proposals for Fenton Area Public Schools and Linden Community Schools, both of which passed.

Livingston County Clerk Betsy Hundley was out visiting all of the jurisdictions in the afternoon and reported that things were quiet and running smooth but noted it was a little bit slow at the polling locations. She said there were just over 4,000 absentee ballots issued county-wide and only about 71% were returned, which is a lower return rate than normal.

Hundley said unfortunately, primaries have lower turnout than general elections historically but clerks can learn from every election. She said they’re constantly working on improvements for poll workers and for developing better processes. Hundley said for every election they conduct, they learn something and “there’s a value from today’s election”.

Hundley said it really went pretty smooth and they didn’t hear much from their City and Township Clerks – noting when they aren’t hearing from them, it went pretty smooth. She said they further didn’t field a lot of calls from the public, like during our big elections. In November of last year, Hundley says they received a lot more calls than they would on an off-year primary election.

The Board of Canvassers will be convening to canvas and certify the election at the Historic Courthouse starting Thursday morning at 9am – which is another phase of the election. Hundley said it’s conducted in an open meeting and the public is welcome to attend if they would like to watch that process.

Election results can be accessed on the county clerk's webpage through the provided link.