By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Tony Guerriero, candidate for the 19th District Court judge seat in the Nov. 4 general election, filed for a recount with the State of Michigan Nov. 24.
“The people that supported me felt the need for a recount because the discrepancy was so close.” Guerriero said. “The difference was only 85 votes.”
Guerriero lost to incumbent Judge Mark Somers 10,175 votes to 10,090.
“My supporters felt it was necessary to have a second look, especially because there were 91 spoiled ballots,” Guerriero said.
Somers has served as a Dearborn judge for 12 years and will begin his third six-year term Jan. 1.
“With that margin its extraordinarily unlikely that anything would change,” Somers said.
The vote recount is set to take place Dec. 11 and 12 in the Dearborn Administrative Center City Council Chambers.
Nine teams from the Wayne County and one team from the state will count the ballots by hand to insure accuracy in the results, City Clerk Kathy Buda said.
Somers said he received a the call from the Secretary of State about the recount Nov. 26 and is prepared for it.
“He’s not claiming anything specific as far as I can see,” Somers said about the petition Guerriero filed. “Basically he just wants them to go in and hand count what’s already been counted.”
Somers doesn’t doubt the results and has full faith in the voting process.
“I have the highest degree of confidence in this system that we use and there is no reason that I know of to believe that there would be any change in votes,” he said. “The equipment that Dearborn uses is good equipment and it picks up the marks, so I don’t expect any change.”
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)