Twenty-five percent of registered voters in Mackinac County used the power of their votes during last week's primary election to replace two county commissioners, though some confusion in voting requirements resulted in spoiled ballots, with at least one potential voter walking out of the polling booths. Astate requirement to vote for candidates in only one political party during a primary election caused the confusion.

County Commissioner Joe Durm lost his seat to Calvin "Bucky" McPhee in a Democratic face-off, with no Republicans running in the District 5 contest. Mr. McPhee will run unopposed in the November general election. Commissioner Jim Farero lost his District 4 commission seat to Mike Patrick, also a Republican. Mr. Patrick will run unopposed in November.

A third commission seat remains up in the air with District 1 Commissioner Carl Frazier, a Democrat, running against his Republican challenger, Bob Brotherton, in November. Neither had opposition in the primary.

In St. Ignace, voters elected Paul Fullerton to a vacant seat on the city council by a two-to-one margin over each of two other candidates. He will complete the remaining term of Paul Grondin, who was elected mayor last March. The term expires November 2007.

In the race for Mackinac County Road Commission, incumbent John Duncan, a Republican, will be challenged by Frank Luepnitz, a Democrat, in the November general election. They defeated Robert Allen Smith and Richard Oliver, respectively, in the primary.

Incumbent Probate Judge Tom North will face Prosecuting Attorney Clayton Graham in November for the judgeship of the 6th Probate Court. A third candidate, Linda Goldthorpe Miller, was defeated by more than 700 votes. County voters also passed the

county-wide separate tax limitation proposal, which will standardize the tax allocations of 6.2 operational mills between the county, townships, and the intermediate school district. The county is slated to receive 4.5 mills, the townships receive 1.5 mills collectively, and the intermediate school district will receive 0.2.

Confusion over voting along party lines resulted in spoiled ballots, said County Clerk Mary Kay Tamlyn. The bad ballots were detected and kicked out of the new automatic ballot counting machines.

Kelly Chesney, spokesperson for the Secretary of State, said voting along straight party lines in a primary has been a Michigan law since 1930.

"The primary process lets both parties pull forward their strongest candidate," she said.

When ballots were spoiled, voters were given a new ballot and allowed to vote again.

Before the new voting equipment was installed, bad ballots were not detected until they were counted after the polls closed, so voters never knew they had misunderstood the procedure. Their ballots were simply thrown out and their votes were wasted.

"The beauty of the new equipment is it gives those individuals who cross party lines another opportunity to vote," Ms. Chesney said.

On Mackinac Island, election worker Jennifer Bloswick said the voting confusion centered around the county commission race, which had two Democrat candidates and no Republican candidates. Some Republican voters found their ballots invalidated when they voted for one of the Democrats. Fifteen ballots were

spoiled there, six were spoiled in St. Ignace and six in St. Ignace Township. Marquette Township had four spoiled ballots, Garfield Township had five, Portage Township had six, Clark Township had 16, Moran Township had 17, and Bois Blanc, Hendricks, and Hudson all had one spoiled ballot each, and several more spoiled ballots were reported in the townships.

Kathy Wightman, who chairs the electoral board on Mackinac Island, explained that spoiled ballots are not tossed out. The election process requires that they be placed in an envelope marked "spoiled ballots." The envelope then is placed in the ballot bag with all the election ballots. The bag is sealed and locked, she said. Then the bag is placed in a ballot can, which also is sealed and locked and kept for two years.

Election results are unofficial, though the Mackinac County Board of Canvassers is expected to certify the election results this week.