Democrat Joseph Alfonso headed for primary win as write-in for U.S. House seat – MLive.com

HOLLAND, MI Write-in candidate Joseph Alfonso, D-Holland, appears headed toward the November ballot as county canvassers continue to certify election results in the race for Michigans U.S. District 4.

Still, theres a ways to go and the 32-year-old former Marine says he is patiently respecting the process.

This process has been a waiting game, but Im just being patient, having faith in the system and not trying to further cause any doubts or other issues, Alfonso told MLive Tuesday, Aug. 9.

As of early afternoon, Tuesday, four of the six counties in the newly-drawn district were still yet to certify results from the Aug. 2 primary election, leaving Alfonsos campaign to continue to wait for the final word of whether he had enough certified write-in votes to land on the November ballot. That actual final word likely wont come until Aug. 22, which is the state deadline for certifying results.

If successful in making the Nov. 8 general election ballot, Alfonso will face off against U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Zeeland), as well as Kalamazoo Libertarian and former state Rep. Lorence Wenke, both of whom ran unopposed in their own primary races.

In order to be successful as a write-in candidate, a declared write-in candidate is required to not only win their own race, but receive at least 5% of the number of votes cast in the Democratic Party race that received the most votes throughout their respective district which across District 4 was the race for governor.

The new congressional district includes all of Allegan and Van Buren counties, and portions of Ottawa, Kalamazoo, Berrien and Calhoun counties, including the cities of Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Holland.

Of the two counties to have completed their canvass, Alfonso successfully garnered enough support through his write-in campaign to unofficially finish with 13.2% of the number of votes cast in the race for governor.

In Ottawa County, he received 2,093 write-in votes, according to the county cavass results report. In Van Buren County, he received 696 votes. There were 1,103 write-in votes in Ottawa County and 1,017 in Van Buren County that were thrown out, meaning only 56.8% of the write-in vote unofficially went to Alfonso.

The other four counties in the district were still yet to certify their results, but across Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Allegan and Berrien counties there were a total of 15,477 write-in votes cast in Alfonsos race with 51,363 votes cast in the Democratic race for governor.

Those four other counties will get done when they get done, Alfonso said. We are feeling pretty good, but we are going to wait for everyone else to do their jobs and respect their space.

While odds are seemingly in Alfonsos favor to get his name on the ballot, write-in votes can be thrown out for a number of reasons, Kalamazoo County Clerk Meredith Place said. Among those include votes for people who are not declared write-in candidates, as well as ballots for which the oval is properly filled in next to the write-in selection, but no name is actually written in, she said.

Oftentimes, a write-in candidates name can be misspelled too, she said, and it is up to each individual county board of canvassers to determine whats an acceptable name variation.

The language from the board of canvassers says its up to the county board of canvassers to discern the intent of the voter, Place said. Whats an approved variation in one county, may not be in another county.

Place said it then rests with the state board of canvassers to determine whether it will accept the accepted variations by each county. The counties have until Aug. 16 to certify their results and submit them to the State of Michigan. The State Board of Canvassers then must certify votes prior to Aug. 22.

Im in this race to win, Alfonso said. We are looking to give West Michigan a representative who is here to give the entire community a voice, not just a few.

The newly-drawn district had placed two Republican incumbents, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (St. Joseph) of the former sixth district and Huizenga, formerly of the second, into the same district. Upton announced his retirement in April and left Huizenga, who is running for his seventh term in U.S. Congress, unopposed in the Aug. 2 Republican primary.

Related: Upton retirement marks latest departure for anti-Trump Republicans, big blow for Michigan congressional delegation

It also presents an opportunity for Alfonso and the Democratic Party to, in essence, replace two Republican congressmen as the states number of congressional districts has decreased by one.

Theres no question its important to the national party, but my focus here is here, Alfonso said. Its representing the community. We are fighting tooth and nail and making sure this community has a choice, especially somebody whos willing to get up there and not be shy and not be afraid of the work.

Alfonso, who filed his candidacy last December, declared as a write-in candidate after being removed from the ballot in late May when the state board of canvassers ruled that he had fallen short of the necessary 1,000 signatures to petition onto the ballot.

According to a May report from the Michigan State Bureau of Elections, only 959 of the 1,027 signatures collected by the Democrat and his team were valid, leaving him short. Of the 68 signatures deemed invalid, the majority were due to date errors, such as lack of date written by the signer, no date of birth entered, or the date given by the signer being later than circulators date of signing.

Alfonso was one of 19 candidates removed from the ballot on May 26 along with three other other U.S. congressional candidates, five Republican gubernatorial candidates and 10 judicial candidates due to either petition errors or fraud. He declared his write-in candidacy the following day.

Related: Its their obligation: Michigan boots 19 candidates from Aug. 2 ballots over petition errors, fraud

While he does not have a background in politics, the veteran who was raised in New York City and moved to Michigan in 2015 said following the Jan. 6 insurrection he took some time prior to entering the race and asked himself if he was doing enough to protect his daughters rights and freedoms, as well as helping to protect his community from misinformation and disinformation.

We have people running for office who are doing well, or are at least doing their best to do well, he said, dismissing his lack of political experience. And we have so many career politicians going into this who are causing further and further divide at the leadership levels where they should be working together.

You go there to represent the community and work with other communities to see if you can get things done for the country, not go there and say hard lines in the sand. Theres certain things you hard line in the sand, but those are peoples freedoms, not necessarily taking peoples rights away. We need to restore faith in the system and move forward and stop this backsliding.

Issues at the top of Alfonsos agenda, he said, include protecting womens reproductive rights, putting an emphasis on veteran affairs and fighting on behalf of the local agricultural community. To read more about issues that matter to Alfonso, visit josephalfonsoforcongress.com/policy.

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Democrat Joseph Alfonso headed for primary win as write-in for U.S. House seat - MLive.com