Flint, MI — The Genesee County Election Commission again voted down recall petition language submitted against Flint City Councilwoman Jerri Winfrey-Carter.
The language was filed by former city councilman Wantwaz Davis on Sept. 27, after his previous recall attempt had been voted down that morning.
Judge Jennie Barkey made a motion to not approve the new recall language after pointing out that the words “council,” “abstained” and “which” were misspelled in the submitted language.
County Treasurer Deb Cherry supported the motion, while County Clerk Domonique Clemons voted against it.
Barkey explained that usually, the commission would hear from the proponent and the elected official, but he said that it didn’t matter what either party said due to the misspellings.
Following the hearing, Winfrey-Carter said the submitted language was “unprofessional.”
“There were several misspelled words, several scratch-outs, to me, which made that form very unprofessional, very hard to understand,” she said. “The other thing was that he did not state the year of the fiscal budget.”
Davis told Flint Beat that he wears glasses, and he was not wearing his glasses when he wrote the language.
“I should have been more, more mindful of, you know, the spelling of the words,” he said, adding that he intended to file more recall language immediately following the hearing.
The language from the Oct. 10, 2023 hearing, similar to Davis’ previous language, cited Winfrey-Carter’s decision to abstain from voting on the city’s fiscal year budget at a June 8, 2023 special council meeting.
The previous language had given only the resolution number, but the new language specified that the resolution was “the yearly fiscal budget.”
At the June 8 meeting, Winfrey-Carter said there should have been working sessions about the budget leading up to the meeting, stating it as the reason behind her decision to abstain.
“I’m disappointed with the entire process,” she had said.
Currently, City Councilmembers Eric Mays, Judy Priestley, Dennis Pfeiffer and Eva Worthing all face potential recall — though Pfeiffer filed an appeal of the commission’s ruling in August.
Additionally, a recall effort against Flint City Council Vice President Ladel Lewis failed earlier this month after the petition’s circulators did not gather enough valid signatures, though more language was filed against her on Oct. 5.
As of press time, the Genesee County Clerk’s office confirmed it had not received additional recall language against Winfrey-Carter.