Posted on 11/01/2004 7:51:24 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Hospital recovery of Michigan House candidate to go through general election
11/1/2004, 5:40 p.m. ETM
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Republican candidate running for the open 85th state House District will be in the hospital until after Tuesday's general election, preventing him from any last-minute campaigning for the seat that covers Shiawassee County and part of Clinton County.
Richard Ball, an optometrist from Laingsburg, had surgery over the weekend to remove an abscess that resulted from an infection in his intestine, campaign manager Charlie Keenan said Monday. The 72-year-old is expected to be in the hospital until later this week, Keenan said.
"He'll be in the hospital for a couple of more days for recovery," Keenan said. "Everything is going very well. The doctors are very pleased."
Ball is facing Democrat Mike Powers, 52, of Durand, for the seat opened because incumbent Larry Julian, a Lennon Republican, can't run for re-election due to term limits.
Keenan said the campaign isn't worried that Ball's absence will hurt his chances to win.
"We feel like we had a good plan, and we initiated it early," Keenan said.
Powers, a former law enforcement officer, said he and Ball have become friends during the course of the campaign.
"You don't want to see a campaign for anyone end this way," Powers said.
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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Both major political parties will have hundreds, and possibly thousands of lawyers and other volunteers, monitoring Michigan polling percents during Tuesday's general election.
The Michigan Republican Party said Monday there are 30,000 dead people on the state's voter registration rolls.
John Truscott, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney Michigan campaign in Michigan, said Republican election challengers — numbering in the hundreds — would challenge people whose name appears on a list of deceased voters.
"We hope Michigan's election process stays clean and above board," Truscott said.
Democrats plan to post 1,200 lawyers in 700 primarily Democratic polling places statewide, said Donnie Fowler, John Kerry's Michigan campaign director.
"These are polling places that we want to make sure people have the ability to vote," Fowler said.
Democrats are worried about voter intimidation while Republicans are concerned about fraud.
"We have reports of non-U.S. citizens being registered to vote without their knowledge," GOP lawyer Eric Doster said. "That's causes us concern."
Republicans also said they would challenge any attempt by Democrats to keep the polls open past 8 p.m. in Detroit.
Both parties said large numbers of volunteers would try to drive voter turnout.
Democrats expected to make more than 1.5 million phone calls to voters in the last 72 hours of the campaign. They also said they would post more than 22,000 volunteers in swing districts statewide.
"We've had the greatest turnout operation we've ever had," Fowler said.
Bush and Posthumus both won the district narrowly.
Good luck to Dr. Ball and hopefully he has a swift recovery.
Dr. Ball is a good guy. He was my eye doctor in the 70's and also did some work at Michigan State then. Drove through the back roads of that district twice on a color tour and saw many signs for him.
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