Republican chosen for Michigan election board is focused on law, not politics

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday appointed Richard Houskamp, an area Republican official from Grand Rapids, to the open GOP seat on Michigan’s prime election certification panel.

Houskamp, a 66-year-old software program firm proprietor, will be part of the Board of State Canvassers on Thursday because it decides whether or not to certify a November poll proposal to crack down on predatory payday lenders. A assessment by the Bureau of Elections discovered Michiganders for Honest Lending is about 72,000 legitimate signatures brief.

“I actually wish to be honest,” Houskamp stated of his philosophy in an interview Tuesday, including the appointment is a superb honor. “I feel the transparency and I feel the integrity of the election course of is sacred to democracy.”

A member of the Republican Occasion’s third Congressional District committee, he instructed MLive earlier this month that 30 years of election and marketing campaign expertise have instilled in him a deep respect for voting and defending election legal guidelines.

Houskamp stated then he would “sit within the center and be neutral” on the Board, whose two Republican and two Democrat appointees certify statewide election outcomes, conduct recounts, approve poll language and extra.

“There’s no politics on this,” he stated. “There’s strictly a regulation within the state of Michigan for elections.”

As some Republicans proceed to allege the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, Houskamp instructed MLive if a political social gathering begins implying “each election is corrupt, I’d argue with you that you will wreck democracy.’

“Do I imagine that fraud exists in elections? Certain,” he stated. “… Do I imagine that Donald Trump had the election stolen in Michigan? No, I don’t.”

Houskamp replaces Norm Shinkle, a state canvasser for greater than 13 years who resigned in June so to not battle along with his bid for a state Home seat.

Shinkle most notably abstained from the Board’s vote to certify Michigan’s 2020 election outcomes, believing “critical issues” with Wayne County’s certification course of wanted an additional look. In the meantime, the opposite Republican and the Board’s two Democrats voted to certify.

Houskamp instructed MLive the Board’s vote was a superb instance of the method working as meant, with folks listening to the identical arguments however voting unbiased of their politics.

Houskamp was one among three native Republican officers the state GOP nominated for the Board. His time period expires Jan. 31, 2023.

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