Bahar-Cook rides a roller coaster of emotions on election night

Rebecca Bahar-Cook took to Facebook at 4 p.m. Nov. 6, conceding defeat.

Michigan’s 83 counties had reported their unofficial election night results to the Bureau of Elections. Bahar-Cook, a Democratic candidate for the MSU Board of Trustees, had finished behind Republican Julie Maday by 13,946 votes.

“I came real close,” she wrote. “Thank you to everyone who knocked doors, donated to my campaign and voted for me. I’m okay. I have a full and happy life. I would have liked to have served, but it isn’t a life-altering loss.”

Hours before, the Capitol news service MIRS had called the election based on the Bureau of Elections numbers. However, Bahar-Cook’s husband, Todd, and her adult daughter, Sara, were perplexed at the Cook household. They had whipped up a spreadsheet tracking the numbers the night before. Based on these, Mom had won. Where was the mistake?

Rebecca Bahar-Cook is a known problem-solver in Ingham County. While a proud Democrat who works for many Democratic clients politically, she’s earned much respect across the aisle as a level-headed problem solver.

Her campaign team felt her reputation might help in her bid to fill one of two open trustee seats, but the consensus was this: If Kamala Harris won Michigan, she was a shoo-in. If Donald Trump won Michigan, she could win, but unlikely. Historically, that’s what happens in these statewide education board races. A Republican presidential or gubernatorial candidate wins Michigan? The Republican MSU board candidates win.

So, while Trump only defeated Harris by 1.42 percentage points, if the numbers show Bahar-Cook lost a seat on the board by 13,946 votes, she probably lost.

Detroit Free Press reporter Paul Egan posted on Bahar-Cook’s Facebook page the next day.

“Hi, Rebecca. I know you more or less conceded, and it is quite possible you can access more complete numbers than I do, but have you seen the latest AP updates? They have moved you into second place.”

Later that afternoon, Cook’s campaign team called me at the home office. They noted that her family’s numbers don’t match the Bureau of Elections final unofficial tally either. Could I point them to the Bureau of Elections’ county-by-county breakdown? I was happy to do so and show them how to quickly enter it into a spreadsheet.

Fifteen minutes later, they called back. They did what I suggested. Something was off. In Allegan County, the Bureau of Elections had Bahar-Cook receiving 2,363 votes, which was dramatically lower than the other MSU candidates.

Allegan County’s website reported that Bahar-Cook received 20,363 votes. However, this data entered on the Michigan Bureau of Elections site had a digit missing.

When officials added the missing 18,000 votes, Bahar-Cook went from losing by about 14,000 votes to pulling ahead by 4,000. We double-checked the campaign’s work. Everything added up. They were right.

At MIRS, we alerted the Bureau of Elections, which acknowledged that an Allegan County worker inputted the wrong number into their site.

We broke the news immediately. Bahar-Cook’s phone started blowing up that night with congratulations.

Still, Bahar-Cook, a former county canvasser, knew the margins were tight. She also knew things could change during the canvassing process, so she checked the Bureau of Elections website a few times daily for the next week.

Sometimes, her margin increased by a couple hundred votes, and sometimes, it shrank by a few dozen. Ultimately, the final total was Bahar-Cook 2,426,171, Maday 2,422,059 — a mere 4,112-vote win.

In the last 100 years of Michigan history, no presidential or gubernatorial election was this close. The best statewide comparison I can find was in 2002 when Mike Cox beat Gary Peters for attorney general by 5,200 votes.

But still, 3 million voters participated in that election. This one was 5 million people. Bahar-Cook’s margin of victory was four one-hundredths of a percent.

It was a roller coaster ride for this former Ingham County commissioner, now preparing to be sworn in as an MSU trustee in less than a month.

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol News Services MIRS. His email address is melinkky@gmail.com.)