Lawsuit claims wrong candidate won seat on Taylor school board

Runner-up claims votes with incorrect spelling should have been counted

TAYLOR, Mich. – Was it Miller or Meyers? The race for a school board seat in Taylor is now the focus of a lawsuit that claims the wrong person won.

David Meyers has been sued by Ronald Miller, who claims the school board seat really should be his. Miller is demanding that he immediately receive the seat he claims he won Nov. 8, but Meyer said not so fast.

Miller is a retired Taylor school bus fleet manager who had a seat on the school board, and then wasn't certain he wanted to run for re-election.

"There were some issues coming up, and I wasn't sure that if we could move forward that I thought we should," Miller said. "So I contemplated it and felt it was in my best interest."

His decision came after the filing deadline, so he ran as a write-in candidate.

Meyers is a Taylor real-estate agent and father of two Taylor school children. He's a political newcomer and filed as a write-in candidate as well.

"He's the incumbent," Meyers said. "He should have been on that ballot from the get-go, but he went in as a write-in alongside of me. So if he was really that passionate about the seat, he would have stepped forward and done his due diligence to stay in that seat."

The lawsuit points out the Wayne County Board of Canvassers didn't count votes that didn't have exact or pre-approved versions of the candidates' names.

"There was a 100-vote swing," Miller said. "That's kind of unheard of as a write-in candidate."

"It does get me that I'm trying to be pulled from a seat I've worked hard for, that I deserve to have and that I passionately care about," Meyers said.

"The county certified the election and they certified it inaccurately because the person sworn into the seat actually wasn't the one that tallied the most votes -- I did," Miller said.

"Everything says I won," Meyers said. "I'm on the board. I got sworn in. That right there is enough to say I won."

There's no court date set, but it will be a hotly contested issue, and a lot of money will be spent on lawyers. The job pays $1,500 per year, which is likely a fraction of what it will take to resolve the case.


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