A heated Republican primary for Genoa Township clerk has escalated into allegations — one of which is documented in official township records — that one of the candidates, Trustee Candie Hovarter, along with fellow Trustee Bill Reiber, has taken down or moved campaign signs for Clerk Rick Soucy, whom Hovarter is challenging in the Aug. 4 primary.
At issue are two claims made by witnesses to the separate incidents: Whether Hovarter directly touched and removed at least one of the signs in one of the incidents, and whether Hovarter had express permission from a property owner to take down Soucy’s signs in the other.
In several statements to The Post, Hovarter has consistently denied ever touching another candidate’s sign, but failed to address multiple questions, including whether she and Reiber had the permission of at least one of the property owners to remove Soucy’s signs. Reiber, reached for comment via email and in person, also did not address multiple questions but reiterated Hovarter never touched a candidate’s sign.
The most detailed of the two accounts is recorded in an official township document that was obtained by The Livingston Post through a Michigan Freedom of Information Act request. In that alleged incident, the minutes show that a Genoa Township employee reported to a township committee in June that they saw Hovarter taking down one of Soucy’s campaign signs and dragging it along a busy township road.
The report, recorded in the township’s June 8, 2026, Administrative Committee meeting minutes, states:
“It was also discussed that an employee of the Township reported seeing Trustee Hovarter taking down the Rick sign at Chilson Road and Latson. The employee indicated that Candie was dragging the sign behind her and the employee wanted to report it to the Committee. The Committee discussed that this is a campaign issue and the Township cannot get involved in any issues related to the campaign.”
The Post later learned the identity of the employee and reached out for comment. The employee spoke on the record with The Post on the condition that they not to be identified for fear of reprisal.
According to that employee, they were at the intersection around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, and witnessed Hovarter “dragging” Soucy’s sign along the side of the road, an account that is consistent with the Administrative Meeting minutes. Reiber, they said, was also seen helping Hovarter carry her sign.
“I saw Candie walking down the side of the road dragging Rick’s sign,” the employee said, adding that they drove by the property three times where the signs were located to better understand what was happening.
After Soucy’s sign was removed, Hovarter’s own sign went up in its place about 10 minutes later, according to the employee.
In three emailed responses to multiple questions from The Post, Hovarter only addressed the narrow issue of whether she touched the signs, writing:
“I have not touched another any (sic) other candidates (sic) sign for any purpose”; “I have not touched anyone’s signs other than my own”; and “I have never touched anyone’s sign other than my own.”
Hovarter’s responses over six days never addressed witness statements that she had permission to remove Soucy’s signs or whether she authorized or asked anyone — including Reiber — to move Soucy’s signs. Hovarter also did not dispute any portion of the multiple witnesses’ accounts from either incident.
Reiber, who also was given multiple opportunities to respond, initially asked for additional information, yet did not address specific witness statements when provided. When approached at the conclusion of the Monday, July 20, Genoa Township Board meeting, he said, “Candie has never touched another candidate’s signs.”
A second incident
The June 2 incident was not the only one described to the Post.
Two business partners who rent a building at another busy Genoa intersection said they watched Reiber pull two of Soucy’s smaller campaign signs from the ground and lay them flat in tall grass beside a shed, out of view of passing motorists. Soucy’s two larger signs were untouched.
The Post reached out to the business partners and the property owner in the second incident but is not naming them, at each party’s request. The partners said they would prefer not to be identified in a political dispute in a community where they know people on all sides.
The business partners said they were working inside when they saw Hovarter and a second person later identified as Reiber walk toward two small Soucy signs along the driveway.
Both business partners stepped outside.
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“We don’t know the rules, but we wanted our presence to be known so we walked over there,” one of the business partners said. “She (Hovarter) seemed pleasant enough to us.”
Hovarter introduced herself as a candidate for clerk and said she was running against Soucy, the business partners said. The partners said Hovarter told them she had permission to place her sign on the property and that Soucy did not.
“I was the only one who was given permission to have signs on the property,” one of the business partners recalled Hovarter saying.
One partner recalled asking Hovarter whether she had the authority to move another candidate’s signs.
“We’re not allowed to take them off the property, but we can set them over here and he (Soucy) can come get them,” the partner recalled Hovarter saying.
The partners said they did not know the man with Hovarter. They described him as wearing a red hat, red shirt, and having a gray goatee. Both later identified him as Reiber from the photograph accompanying his official biography on the Genoa Township website.
The witnesses in both incidents said Reiber was wearing a red shirt and red hat. Reiber’s own publicly accessible social media posts show him in a red hat and red shirt over multiple dates campaigning for Hovarter and other area candidates.
The question of permission
The Post reached out to the property owner in the second instance to determine whether Hovarter had exclusive rights to put up her sign on the property, as she claimed to the witnesses, and whether the owner gave her permission to take down at least two of Soucy’s signs.
The property owner denied both, saying he never granted Soucy or Hovarter exclusivity rights, and never authorized or asked anyone to remove Soucy’s signs.
The property owner declined to discuss the matter further after his initial comments.
Soucy ‘disappointed,’ considering filing claim
When asked about the incident described in the township minutes and the accounts of the employee and business owners, Soucy said of Hovarter and Reiber, “I’m very disappointed and I think their actions are harmful to the trust the public put in us to run Genoa Township effectively. If she’s denying ever touching any of my signs and accounts show that she has, then she would be lying.”
Soucy added that he is considering filing a formal complaint with Michigan’s Bureau of Elections.
The race and endorsements
Soucy, Hovarter and Reiber were elected to the Genoa Township board on Nov. 5, 2024, and took office a few weeks later on Nov. 20. Soucy was appointed clerk a year later, on Nov. 5, 2025, after then-Clerk Janene Deaton resigned less than a year into her term. He is now seeking election to the remainder of that term.
The Aug. 4 Republican primary is a three-way race. Soucy faces Hovarter and resident Debbie McCormick. The winner of the Republican primary is expected to face Democrat Matthew McClanahan in November. McClanahan is unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Soucy is endorsed by Genoa Township Supervisor Kevin Spicher, fellow Trustee Todd Walker and Township Treasurer Robin Hunt.
Days after Spicher publicly endorsed Soucy speaking as a private resident and local business owner with a post addressed to Genoa Township, Livingston County Republican Party Chair Deb Drick (who does not live in Genoa Township) issued a statement on behalf of the county party endorsing Hovarter.
The competing endorsements — all made by Republicans for Republicans — come amid a broader debate among Michigan GOP officials over party leaders wading into contested primaries.
Michigan GOP Chair and state Sen. Jim Runestad, weighing in on a separate endorsement dispute in neighboring Oakland County, questioned party officers using their official positions to influence a primary, writing that when officers “repeatedly invoke their leadership roles and responsibilities to persuade Republican voters, many will reasonably view that as an endorsement from the Chairman and Vice Chair, not simply two private individuals.”
Drick publicly pushed back against the criticism of endorsements in two posts.
“Good Lord, the angst over endorsements,” she wrote on Facebook. “They are nothing more than recommendations, or advice or suggestions.” She added that people were “acting like if they see one, suddenly a gun will appear aimed at their temples,” and told Republicans to “pick your GOP candidate and stop stressing.”
Drick’s involvement in the clerk’s race also extends beyond the written endorsement.
She featured Hovarter on the official LCRP podcast, “The Right Side.” On the podcast, she did not mention Soucy nor McCormick by name. Instead, she referred to Soucy, who was elected to the township board before stepping forward to fill the clerk vacancy, only as a “somebody else” who had been appointed.
