Clark Township election officials are 98% sure that humidity was the culprit in a ballot going unaccounted for in the August 3 primary. Out of 541 ballots given out, only 540 votes were tallied, most likely because the dampness in the air caused two ballots to stick together, said election chair Julie Smith.

Precincts may often be a ballot or two off, she said, with election officials generally figuring out the cause. If the margin stays at two, it is considered acceptable.

“Technology is improved to the point where we're only missing two ballots at most,” Mrs. Smith said. “If it's any more than two, we'd be hot on the trail trying to figure out what happened.”

With a narrow margin of victory favoring Dan Benishek over Jason Allen for the First Congressional District seat, initially reported as a one-vote difference in the whole district, each precinct with missing votes was scrutinized.

As part of that process, those responsible for the Clark Township election, including Mrs. Smith, Township Clerk Mike Miller, and three election volunteers, were summoned to meet with the Mackinac County Board of Canvassers to explain what happened.

In addition to a sticky ballot, the precinct had difficulty with the modem on its vote tabulator, which sends results directly to the county clerk's office over a telephone line, when working properly.

The township had similar problems submitting the results of school elections in May, but workers were ultimately able to deliver those verbally over the phone. Owing to the number of items on the primary ballot, however, the votes were picked up and delivered by the Mackinac County Sheriff's Office.

Mrs. Smith was then talked through the process of recounting the ballots. This achieved the desired result, as all 541 votes were tallied on the second count.

The extra vote didn't change the outcome of the Benishek-Allen race, as the uncounted tally was for Don Hooper, but a canvass of all votes cast in the congressional district ultimately gave Mr. Benishek a 15 vote lead and Mr. Allen conceded the race.

The township left the tabulator with the county to have the modem fixed.

“The tabulator is working fine, other than the modem,” Mrs. Smith said. “This glitch with the ballots sticking together was pretty easy to figure out. It was human error and there are no red flags going up as a result of it. We'll just have to be more diligent in making sure ballots don't stick together in the future.”