Garlin Gilchrist II requests recount in hotly contested Detroit clerk race

Narrowly defeated Detroit City Clerk candidate Garlin Gilchrist II requested on Tuesday a recount of votes from some of the precincts in the hotly contested race against incumbent Janice Winfrey.

Gilchrist is asking for a recount of all 100 absentee voting boards — or precincts — in the city. He is also looking into possibly requesting a recount of some select precincts where he said he had heard about issues.

"For the last three months, we've heard many stories from absentee voters about chaos and confusion with their application and their ballots," Gilchrist said at a news conference. "There was enough confusion to have concerns about the process and how these votes were counted. The results on election night added to these voters' concern."

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The election between Gilchrist and Winfrey was deemed one of the most compelling and uncertain, with election watchers predicting it would go down to the wire. Gilchrist was in the lead for the much of the race; he showed about a 10% lead until the absentee votes were counted.

With all 590 precincts reporting, Winfrey beat Gilchrist by about 1,400 votes, getting 49,882, (50.5%) to Gilchrist's 48,400 votes (49.0%).

At a news conference at his campaign office Tuesday, Gilchrist explained that his decision to raise funds for a recount was based on a desire for transparency.

"We all want and need to have confidence that Detroit votes are properly handled and counted accurately," he said. He said he heard of voters getting a second application for absentee ballots in the mail, ballots being sent to people who never applied for them, and duplicate confirmations being sent to people saying their ballot had been received by the Clerk's office.

"It's critical that we all trust our election system and especially as we go into the 2018 election cycle," he added.

It costs $125 for a precinct to be recounted. With the 100 absentee voting boards that Gilchrist will petition to recount, this brings the tab of the recount up to at least $12,500.

The recount will look into whether Gilchrist was, in fact, victorious in the race two weeks ago, but also whether the Detroit Department of Elections has fixed previous issues with its counting procedures.

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Last November, during the presidential election, equipment failures and other errors at many precincts brought Detroit to a national stage and cast a negative light upon its election processes.

A state audit revealed widespread counting discrepancies that effectively precluded a recount in Michigan. But state and local officials said using state-of-the-art voting machines wouldn't have changed the state's results.

Winfrey supporters have maintained she made progress in cleaning up the city’s voter rolls since the snafu.

Winfrey could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

On Nov. 8, following the election, however, she told Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson that she wasn't worried about the outcome changing in the event of a recount.

"You’ll never find 1,400 votes (difference in a recount). You won’t find 10 votes," Winfrey said. "But if that’s how they want to spend their money, they have plenty of it, they are entitled."

Gilchrist, 34, returned to Detroit three years ago as the Duggan administration's director of new and emerging technology.

He also served as a national campaign director for MoveOn.org, a progressive public policy group, and coordinated campaigns against initiatives to suppress minority voting in Florida, Texas and the Carolinas.

Reporter Katrease Stafford contributed to this article.