GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A state representative who seems to have been defeated in the Nov. 5 election has filed to have the ballots recounted.

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers certified the election results Friday. State Rep. Jim Haadsma, D-Battle Creek, and his attorneys had 48 hours to ask for a recount, which they filed before 9 a.m. Monday.

The initial unofficial results for the 44th Michigan House District race showed Republican challenger and current Calhoun County Commissioner Steve Frisbie with nearly 1,400 more votes than Haadsma. But the Calhoun County clerk quickly realized that about 2,800 absentee ballots from battle Creek had not been counted, The Detroit News reports, and revised the unofficial results. The updated figures had Frisbie up by only about 60 votes.

Frisbie sued to try to stop a recount of those absentee ballots while the county canvass was underway, but a judge threw out that suit. After the count was finished, Frisbie still appeared to be the winner. That’s the vote that was certified last week.

In a Monday statement to News 8, Haadsma’s attorney Chris Trebilcock said that the recount would confirm the data transfer error involving absentee ballots and all write-in candidates.

“The Calhoun County canvass was not transparent so a hand recount will remove any doubt around it. This is a standard request when a race is this close. We trust that the hand recount will reach the correct result,” Chris Trebilcock, Haadsma’s lawyer, told News 8 in a statement.

No matter the outcome of a recount, Republicans will still claim a majority of seats in the House in January.

—News 8 reporter Demetrios Sanders contributed to this report.