Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) chair of the House Labor Committee. | Kyle Davidson
Absentee ballots in Battle Creek will be re-tabulated following an error in last week’s election that has left results of a key state House race up in the air.
An error in Calhoun County’s election reporting system from the Nov. 5 election resulted in approximately 2,800 absentee ballots within the city of Battle Creek being overridden and not counted.
The 44th state House race pitted incumbent state Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) against Republican challenger Steve Frisbie, a longtime paramedic who has served as a Calhoun County commissioner for the past 13 years.
Haadsma’s seat was one of four that was reported to be flipped by Republicans, giving them a 58-52 majority in the next session that begins in January.
Initial results in the election showed Haadsma lost by 1,381 votes to Frisbee.
After the error was discovered, the unofficial results were updated to diminish Frisbie’s lead to just 58 votes — 20,823 total votes for him to 20,765 for Haadsma.