With nominee ruled ineligible, GOP must pick new register of deeds candidate in Grand Traverse Co.

TRAVERSE CITY — Barb Lund became the Republican nominee for Grand Traverse County register of deeds after the August primary election, but she was found ineligible because she registered with an address that was not her primary residence.

Michigan state law dictates that an executive committee should now fill the vacant nominee position.

“We have the official notification from the county clerk’s office letting us know that Barb Lund was ineligible,” said Katie Kniss, chair of the Grand Traverse County GOP. “That process was sent back to the Grand Traverse County Republican Party to choose the nominee.”

The party is legally able to choose anyone in the county but have decided to stick with the three other candidates who ran in the primary.

“We’re not considering any outside candidates. So from there, it really is up to the Grand Traverse County Republican party to make that decision. I guess logically, one would easily think that it would automatically go to the next highest vote getter, which would be Scott Rokos, but the law doesn’t state that,” explained Kniss.

While the GOP executive committee can pick whoever they want, they said the public’s input will still be important to their decision. Candidate Terri Boven said she still feels that voters lost their say.

“The problem is that they thought they were voting for Barb, and they didn’t know ahead of time that she wasn’t eligible. So it all went towards Barb and now their votes are kind of wasted,” said Boven.

We also reached out to Barbara Lund, who declined to comment, and the two other candidates. Scott Rokos was unavailable and Joseph G. Underwood did not get back to us.

A public forum meeting will be held next Thursday, Aug. 29, at 5 p.m. at the GTGOP headquarters in the old Cherryland Plaza.