Michigan Board of State Canvassers Member Richard Houskamp.Provided photo
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday appointed Richard Houskamp, a local Republican official from Grand Rapids, to the open GOP seat on Michigan’s top election certification panel.
Houskamp, a 66-year-old software company owner, will join the Board of State Canvassers on Thursday as it decides whether a November ballot proposal will be certified to destroy predatory payday lenders. A review by the Bureau of Elections found that Michiganders for Fair Lending are short of about 72,000 valid signatures.
“I want to be really fair,” Houskamp said of his philosophy in an interview Tuesday, adding that the rendezvous is a great honor. “I believe in transparency and I believe the integrity of the electoral process is sacred to democracy.”
A member of the Republican Party’s 3rd Congressional District Committee, he told MLive earlier this month that 30 years of election and campaign experience had earned him a deep respect for the election and protection of electoral laws.
Houskamp said he would “sit in the middle and be impartial” on the board of directors, whose two Republicans and two Democrats will nominate state election results, make stories, cast ballots and more.
“There is no policy in this,” he said. “There is a strict law in the state of Michigan for elections.”
As some Republicans further claim that the 2020 election was stolen by former President Donald Trump, Houskamp told MLive when a political party begins to imply “every election is corrupt, I would argue with you that you are ruining democracy.”
“Do I believe that fraud and elections exist? Sure,” he said. “… Do I believe Donald Trump stole the Michigan election? No, I did not.”
Houskamp replaces Norm Shinkle, a state canvasser for more than 13 years who resigned in June so as not to conflict with his bid for a state house seat.
Shinkle has been particularly reluctant by the board to certify Michigan’s 2020 election results, believing that “serious problems” with the Wayne County certification process need a further look. Meanwhile, the other Republicans and the two Democrats on the board voted to certify.
Houskamp told MLive that the board vote would be a good example of the process as envisaged, with people hearing the same arguments but voting regardless of their policies.
Houskamp was one of three local Republican officials nominated by the state GOP to the board. His term expires on January 31, 2023.
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