Two local election officials in Michigan have been removed from overseeing the vote, state officials said on Tuesday, in a forceful move to keep Trump-aligned officials from trying to subvert election rules.
Tom Schierkolk, the clerk of Rock River Township in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and his deputy, David LaMere, were removed after telling state officials that they intended to hand count ballots before sending their tally on for the county canvass, according to a letter that Jonathan Brater, Michigan’s elections director, sent to Mr. Schierkolk on Monday informing him of the decision.
Mr. Schierkolk is tied to a network of activists who have pushed several baseless theories about corruption in elections and, at times, advocated the hand-counting of ballots, apparently believing that electronic voting machines are insecure. Donald J. Trump and his allies spread the idea widely after his defeat in 2020, claiming, falsely, that the machines had changed the votes to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
In his letter, Mr. Brater noted that hand-counting is against the law and could undermine the accuracy and security of the count. Experts believe voting machines are generally more reliable and faster than hand counts. Mr. Brater wrote that the clerk had refused an order from the Michigan secretary of state’s office to follow proper procedures.
In an interview, Mr. Schierkolk called the state’s move “baseless” and insisted that a hand count would be lawful under the state’s Constitution.
Mr. Brater ordered that Mr. Schierkolk and his deputy were to hand over their election duties to other local officials “in order to ensure public trust and confidence in the integrity and security of elections” and that their access to the state voter-roll system was shut off.
Angela Benander, a spokeswoman for the Michigan secretary of state’s office, said, “It speaks to the efforts that we are not going to tolerate any attempts to circumvent the law.”
Elections officials across the country are worried about effectively an insider threat — that elected officials steeped in misinformation about voting could disrupt the process.
Already in Michigan, the state has taken over supervision of elections in Shelby Township, where a Republican clerk was charged with a felony for his alleged role in the 2020 fake election scheme. The election there is now being run by a deputy.
Elections and other local government duties in Rock River, a town of just around 1,000 people, have been recently transformed by right-wing activists who have aggressively harassed the town’s leaders, according to Trevor Case, a former member of the town’s board of trustees whose wife, Maria Strand, preceded Mr. Schierkolk in the job. The activists frequently brought false theories about election machines before Ms. Strand.
In April, Mr. Case, Ms. Strand and another employee, all Democrats, resigned.
“We had had enough,” Mr. Case said.
In her resignation letter, Ms. Strand wrote of a peaceful town disrupted because “some individuals believe that it is OK to treat community service members with disrespect, slander, libel, stalking and many other forms of harassment towards people who are just trying to make a difference for the good of the community we live in.”
The resignations ushered in new leadership, including Mr. Schierkolk, an activist with the local affiliate of the right-wing group Stand Up Michigan, which also works with a broader network of election denial activists.
Mr. Schierkolk, who said his group was not connected to the activists harassing the local officials, told Mr. Brater in a letter last week, “The integrity of the election is of utmost importance to me.”
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