DETROIT — This week, a bipartisan state elections panel agreed, unanimously, to certify Mike Duggan as the official winner of the Mayoral Primary that took place on Aug 6.   The decision gives him the lead over opponent Benny Napoleon by more than 20,000 votes.

The Board of State Canvassers found that 48,716 votes were cast for Duggan, while only 28,391 votes had been cast for Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, making those results similar to that of the findings of City officials.

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers, who took issue with those results two weeks ago, had placed Benny Napoleon in first place, due to poll worker errors regarding Duggan’s write-in campaign. However, because of a Supreme Court ruling in a previous matter, the State has determined that a voter’s ballot could not be thrown out because of poll worker error.

State election officials supervised a review of thousands of write-in ballots last week, in an effort to figure out who had won the mayor’s race. State Elections Director Christopher Thomas, who supervised the State’s review, said in an affidavit last week that thousands of voters would have been disenfranchised if the County’s results had been certified.

Duggan and Napoleon will face off in the General Election on November 5.