By Jacob Prado | City of Ludington, Doolittle County

Tuesday night DooLittle County held their first full county meeting, where all elected officials were sworn in.

Henry Rogge, the write-in County Executive, ran the meeting where he was said to have broken three rules of Parliamentary Procedure and had previously been accused of a conspiracy to overthrow the City of Ludington.

While becoming an elected official through a write-in made Badger Boys State history, the election itself began to come into question among Doolittle officials.

After a close look into the BBS statutes, and consulting with members of both parties, some citizens of Doolittle found there to be foul play in the election and demand for Henry Rogge to step down and for the position of County Executive to be re-voted on.

The issue first arose with Rogge’s own campaign, but more specifically his ability to obtain campaigning materials.

Under Statute 1.07, Section 1, it is stated that “Only such materials as are issued through and by the Badger Boys State Director may be lawfully used by any political party, or any candidate, in the campaign for any elective office.”

Although Rogge is a part of the Federalist Party, the campaign materials provided, as stated in the statute, are only intended for the party and its nominee. Due to the fact that Rogge was not the Federalist party nominee, the campaign materials provided could not have legally been used in his campaign.

According to a member of the Federalist Party, Rogge was not given these materials to campaign with. The legality of Rogge’s campaign is clearly in question, but the question of his position doesn’t simply end with his campaign.

Once some members of Doolittle County established the laws broken during Rogge’s campaign they began to look deeper into the ballots.

In statute 1.04, section 2, it states that “No citizen may be nominated for office in Badger Boys State or any of its governmental subdivisions on any party ticket other than the two authorized by this act.” What this means is that Rogge could not even be a write in under the statute due to the fact that he was not nominated under a party, invalidating his victory.

Besides this, Rogge’s write in, even if legal, would have needed to be written as “Henry Rogge (F)” and most of the write in nominations were not.

Furthermore, in section 2 of statute 1.04 it also states “No change in party affiliation shall be made or recognized.” To add to the fact that he had no party, this provision of the statute further proves that his election was invalid because his “independent party” could not have been legally recognized.

In addition to his breaking of Badger Boys Statutes, the election ballots show that multiple different “Henrys” were written in. “Henry”, “Henry Gogge”, “Henry Rogg” and simple “Henry Rogge” were all written on the ballot. The election results were released by city counselors and clearly show disparities within the election regarding the spelling of Henry’s name. This disparity, along with the grey area regarding third parties and write in nominees, show once again that Henry Rogge needs to step down and a re-election needs to occur in Doolittle County

Now that you’ve read all there is to read, you now have the knowledge to make an informed decision. It may look like the law is biased towards the two parties, but nonetheless Rogge broke the law. After discussion with the District Attorney of Doolittle, no charges will be formally filed as of now. As the week progresses and this case is likely taken to court, legislation may make its way to the governor’s desk.