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Michigan removes UP clerks from election duty over planned hand count – 9&10 News

Michigan removes UP clerks from election duty over planned hand count – 9&10 News

LANSING (AP) — Two Upper Peninsula county clerks were removed from their election duties this week after they planned to hand out vote counts in Tuesday’s election, state officials said.

Director of Elections Jonathan Brother said in an email Monday that Rock River Clerk Tom Shirkolk and Deputy Clerk David Lamer intend to conduct a manual vote count before the county’s canvassing process.

Michigan law Jurisdictions must use voting machines to tally ballots, according to the secretary of state.

Rock River is about 27 miles from Marquette and has a population of just over 1,200 people, according to Census 2020.

Township election duties will be transferred to Rock River’s deputy treasurer with the assistance of a nearby clerk, Brother wrote, “to ensure public trust and confidence in the integrity and security of the election.”

The letter was first reported by the New York Times.

Shirkolk said in an interview that Rock River residents had demanded a hand count to verify the results tallied by the voting machines to “restore public confidence in the election.” He also questioned Breiter’s authority to remove him from election duties and believes the hand count is legal under Michigan law.

Research shows that machine counting is faster and more accurate than manual counting. In his letter, Brater noted that the proper procedure after the polls close is to store the consolidated ballots in “secure containers with sealed numbers.”

According to the New York Times, Shirkolk insisted in an interview that the hand count would be legal under the state constitution.

Brater wrote that failure to comply with the order by his office, which is run by the Michigan secretary of state, is a criminal misdemeanor.

“Your past actions and statements detailed in previous letters indicate that you and the deputy secretary are unwilling to fulfill your duties as secretary,” Brother said.

As former President Donald Trump and his allies spread lies claiming that widespread fraud cost Trump the 2020 election, some Republicans have sought to replace modern voting machines with a more time-consuming, error-prone manual counting process, despite the lack of evidence of widespread fraud or large violation.

In 2023, a Republican clerk in Shelby Township, Michigan, was banned by the state from running elections after he was accused of acting as a fraudulent voter in 2020 for then-President Donald Trump. He has pleaded not guilty and is running for re-election as Shelby Township Clerk.