Bill Huizenga's Democratic challenger is disqualified from the ballot. He's not giving up.

Carolyn Muyskens, The Holland Sentinel
·2 min read
The Fourth Congressional District stretches from Holland down to Benton Harbor.
The Fourth Congressional District stretches from Holland down to Benton Harbor.

HOLLAND — The Democratic candidate for the new 4th Congressional District, which includes southern Ottawa County, Allegan County, Van Buren County and the cities of Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, has launched a write-in campaign after he was disqualified from the Aug. 2 primary ballot Thursday.

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers voted Thursday to remove Joseph Alfonso, of Holland, from the ballot as part of a lengthy meeting that also resulted in the disqualification of half of the Republican candidates for Michigan governor.

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The board's decision was based on a report from the state Bureau of Elections that said Alfonso's campaign was short valid signatures after errors were found with 68 of the 1,027 signatures submitted. The signatures were found to be invalid primarily due to issues with mismatched dates and wrong or incomplete addresses. One signer was not registered to vote.

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, speaks to a crowd of about 100 supporters at the Evangelicals for Trump rally Friday, Sept. 25, at Baker Lofts in Holland.
U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, speaks to a crowd of about 100 supporters at the Evangelicals for Trump rally Friday, Sept. 25, at Baker Lofts in Holland.

Congressional candidates need 1,000 valid signatures to make the ballot.

Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Holland Township, will be the only candidate on the ballot in August following Alfonso's disqualification.

Huizenga is serving his sixth term in Congress, having been first elected to the House of Representatives in 2010.

Joseph Alfonso
Joseph Alfonso

Alfonso announced Friday he has filed as a write-in candidate for the Democratic nomination in August.

To be listed as the Democratic candidate on the November ballot, enough people will need to write in Alfonso on the August primary ballot. The threshold he needs to meet, according to the Michigan Secretary of State elections manual, is whichever of the following is greater:

  • 10 votes.

  • 0.0015 percent of the population in the district.

  • 5 percent of the votes cast in whichever Democratic Party race receives the most votes in the primary. This is almost always the top-of-the-ticket race and in this case would be primary for the governor's office, which is uncontested this year as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is seeking re-election.

In August 2012, now-state senator Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, won a spot on the November 2012 ballot through a primary write-in campaign for the 76th District of the Michigan House of Representatives.

In that case, the Democratic Party did not field any other candidates and Brinks earned 2,500 write-in votes. The sitting representative, Roy Schmidt, had switched parties just before the filing deadline, leaving the Democratic nomination open.

— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens. 

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Huizenga challenger runs as write-in after removal from ballot