Sylvan Township millage election: Hearing ordered to show cause for not doing recount

By Cindy Heflin Associate news director

Posted on Thu, Sep 27, 2012 : 8:27 a.m.

Editor's note: The date of the hearing has been corrected in this article.

A judge has granted a Sylvan Township resident’s request for a hearing examining the reasons for not conducting a requested recount of ballots in the Aug. 7 millage election, Chelsea Update reported.

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The 4.4 mill request passed by 7 votes, 480 votes to 473 votes. Township resident Janice Carr requested a recount, but the Washtenaw Board of Canvassers determined that the bags holding the ballots had not been sealed properly, and therefore, a recount could not be conducted.

Another resident has requested a hearing to “show cause” for denying the recount, the news website reported. Judge Archie Brown granted the show-cause request but denied requests for a preliminary junction and temporary restraining order, according to the report. The hearing was set for 9 a.m. Oct. 3.

The tax would raise funds over a 20-year period to pay the county back about $13 million Sylvan Township owes in back taxes and for payments absorbed by the county after the township defaulted on a loan for a water and sewer development project.

Read the Chelsea Update article.