Clerk in Michigan UP barred from administering 2024 election

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Michigan’s elections director on Monday blocked a local clerk in Rock River Township from organizing an upcoming election, thwarting plans for a hand-count of ballots in the small Upper Peninsula community.

Elections Director Jonathan Bretter told Rock River Township Clerk Tom Schiercole in a letter Monday that the hand count would violate state election law, “interfere with the integrity of the election process, damage the county canvass, and would jeopardize the candidates’ ability to request a recount.” Rock River Deputy Township Clerk David Lameer was also barred from administering the election, according to Brater, who was also accused of straying from election procedures. It was suspected.

A pair of local election officials were ordered to turn over election equipment and access to records to another official who Bretter said would handle the election. Schierkolk told the Free Press that his access to the state’s voter file has been revoked.

Elections in Michigan are administered by municipal clerks at the local level, making Michigan home to the nation’s most decentralized election system in the United States, after polls close at 8 p.m. on election night. Ballots are sealed in ballot containers before the county. In accordance with the instructions of the Election Officials of the Election Staff to review the election materials and verify the results.

But Schierkolk told the Free Press that he had planned to count ballots by hand to address concerns about the accuracy of voter counting machines.

“Hand counting has been an accurate method of counting ballots since the beginning of our country. There are many questions about whether tabulators are being misused and so just to verify the tabulators, we count the hands. want to calculate to show everyone that the tabulators are doing what they’re supposed to,” Schierkolk said. Lamir did not immediately respond to a Free Press email seeking comment.

The Secretary of State’s office did not immediately respond to questions from the Free Press, including whether another clerk may be planning to count the ballots.

In 2020, a human error in Antrim County temporarily saw former President Donald Trump lose the GOP stronghold. It was caught and corrected before the results were certified, but it fueled conspiracies about voting machines, which Trump and his allies seized on in their quest to overturn the last presidential election. Court rulings, audits and other post-election reviews have upheld the results of the 2020 elections.

Schierkolk declined to say whether he believes the last election was stolen from Trump. He said that obviously there is a big question about this in the whole country. “Whether it was or not, I can’t say specifically, but obviously trust in our elections has been a challenge. You know, there are a lot of people who don’t trust our electoral system right now. That trust needs to be restored.”

Schierkolk shared an email he sent to Brater on Wednesday with two attached documents challenging Brater’s legal authority to prevent him from administering the election, state law would have allowed the ballot to be counted. and accuses Michigan’s director of elections of violating the public trust.

As of the 2020 census, Rock River Township of Alger County has a population of 1,231. Schierkolk is running for township clerk as a candidate unaffiliated with any political party. His opponent is Republican Heather Marsh.

Asked about Rock River Township voters’ confidence in the 2020 election, Schierkolk said he doesn’t think anyone believes the election was rigged in his own backyard. “People definitely have questions about Detroit,” he said. Trump and his allies spread lies about the accuracy of the vote count in Detroit in 2020. Trump also falsely claimed that GOP election observers were barred from the absentee ballot counting room. While some were stopped as the room reached capacity, other GOP challengers were inside watching election workers process ballots.

According to election results on Alger County’s website, Trump won about 54% of the vote in Rock River Township in 2020 compared to President Joe Biden’s about 45% in the township.

Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter. @clarajanehen.

Looking for more about this year’s Michigan elections? Check out our voter guide, subscribe to our election newsletter and always feel free to share your thoughts in a letter to the editor.

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