Photofinish

The election returns from Michigan sounded like a Kentucky Derby broadcast by Clem McCarthy. Soon after they got off, rugged ex-Governor Harry F. Kelly, who lost a leg in World War I, slipped ahead. By midevening, he was out front by 41,000 votes. By breakfast time next morning, young (39) Democratic Governor G. Mennen Williams, heir to a soap fortune and undeviating friend of organized labor, was only 9,000 behind and coming up fast.

Later in the day, Kelly's lead was down to a bare 2,100. Next day, vote counters began discovering errors in "Soapy" Williams favor; by noon of the fourth day, he was ahead by 557 votes. On the fifth day, it was Kelly again--by 307. But it was only a paper lead at best, because locked inside several ballot boxes in labor strongholds were apparently a few hundred more votes for Soapy. Sure enough, two days later, the lead was Soapy's by 558 votes.

But this week, Michiganders still did not know who would be their governor for the next two years, and a recount of the state's entire 1,869,000 vote seemed unavoidable. By law, a defeated candidate demanding a recount must pay $5 a precinct for it--a total of $21,805. The Detroit News sensibly suggested that this time, since everyone concerned was confused, the state should pick up the tab.

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