House election committee hears bill to clarify replacement process when a county candidate dies

The Michigan House Committee on Election Integrity on Tuesday heard testimony on House Bill 4736, a measure the committee’s chair called for to clarify how political parties replace a deceased county candidate after qualifying deadlines.

“Today, I'm testifying in support of my legislation, House Bill 47 36, which would clarify the process that occurs when there is a death of a county candidate not currently explicitly mentioned under current law,” Chair Smith said when introducing the bill.

The bill would add county commissioners to the list of county offices for which Michigan election law prescribes a replacement process when a qualified party nominee dies after the filing deadline. Committee members and witnesses said the omission has created inconsistent practices, legal uncertainty and court challenges for county clerks.

Algon County Clerk Bob Janetski told the committee his office confronted the issue in 2024 after a longtime county commissioner died just before the primary deadline, leaving no candidate on the ballot. “When my office and I sought the law as to how to handle such a vacancy, we were concerned to find that there was no remedy in the law for a vacancy, only for county commissioner,” Janetski said. He said the omission in Public Act 116 of 1954 — Michigan Election Law — left clerks “in the dark” and produced the potential for inconsistent handling across the state’s 83 counties.

The clerk described an Allegan County 2024 sequence in which the local Republican committee nominated a replacement for the November ballot and a later write-in candidate sued; a circuit court ultimately upheld the clerk’s action but noted the lack of a clear statutory mandate led the clerk to rely on Secretary of State guidance.

Chair Smith and other committee members also cited an Ingham County situation in 2024 — when a candidate died after primary ballots were printed — as evidence that the omission is not rare and can produce litigation risk or dispute. Supporters said HB 4736 would make the statutory text consistent for county-level elected offices and reduce county clerks’ dependence on guidance rather than explicit law.

The Michigan Department of State signaled support on the record (Aaron Shore, not wishing to speak, listed support on a submitted card), and county clerks who testified described practical election administration challenges that the bill would address.

No formal vote on HB 4736 was recorded during the hearing; the committee proceeded to additional agenda items after the testimony.

Supporters asked the committee to advance the bill so clerks across Michigan would have a clear, uniform statutory procedure when a party’s county nominee dies after a qualifying deadline.