Anatomy of a nail-biter: Timeline shows how results for Hughes-Lamonte race kept us guessing

FRUITPORT TOWNSHIP, MI As election-night vote counting on Tuesday, Nov. 4 stretched into the early morning hours of the next day, leading candidates in the 91st state house paced and grew emotional.

Two of them were neck and neck: Incumbent Collene Lamonte, a Democrat from Montague, and challenger Holly Hughes, a Republican from White River Township who held the seat before Lamonte defeated her two years ago.

Challenger Alan Jager, a candidate from Holton Township running without a party affiliation, also drew a noticeable slice of votes in the district.The 91st State House District covers Whitehall, Montague, Norton Shores, Roosevelt Park and most non-urban sections of Muskegon County.

For most of the night and a big chunk of the morning, the outcome was uncertain. Election results at first seemed to be behind Lamonte, and later Hughes.

Eventually,Hughes was recognized as having 58 votes more than Lamonte in preliminary results from the Muskegon County Clerk's office but not after a substantial amount of nail-biting by both parties.

Here's a timeline of how things went down election night:

8:45 p.m. Hughes has begun receiving guests at a vote-watching party at Mona Lake Boating Club in Norton Shores. "I'm not really nervous, just waiting for the results," she said.

9:15 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Lamonte is at the Democratic Candidates meetup hosted by the Michigan Mainstreet Movement Political Action Committee, at Whitlow's Forerunner in Fruitport Township.She says she voted in the morning, can't remember the exact time. "It all runs together," she said. Her campaign knocked on doors in three different precincts during the day, she says, in Norton Shores, Fruitport and Lakewood Club.

10:30 p.m. - 11 p.m. In Norton Shores, MLive Muskegon Chronicle reporter Brandon Champion observes "Holly Hughes is looking a little more nervous now. Her race is awfully close with Lamonte. Her glasses are coming on and off more and more frequently."

12:15 a.m. Lamonte is pacing and talking on a cell phone off to one side at Whitlow's. The Muskegon County Clerk's website shows her roughly 200 votes ahead with just one precinct left to be counted.

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Anatomy of a nail-biter: Timeline shows how results for Hughes-Lamonte race kept us guessing