Two county clerks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were relieved of their election duties this week after planning to count votes in Tuesday’s election, state officials said.
Elections Director Jonathan Brater said in a letter Monday that Rock River Clerk Tom Schierkolk and Assistant Secretary David LaMere planned to conduct a hand count prior to the county’s process of collating results.
Michigan law requires jurisdictions to use voting machines to tabulate ballots, the secretary of state’s office said.
Rock River is located about 27 miles from Marquette, Michigan, and is home to just over 1,200 people, according to the 2020 census.
The council’s election duties will be transferred to Rock River’s deputy treasurer, with the assistance of a nearby city clerk, Brater wrote, “to ensure public confidence in the integrity and security of the election.”
The letter was first reported by the New York Times.
Schierkolk said in an interview that Rock River residents had requested a hand count to verify the results of the voting machines in order to “restore public confidence in the election.” He also questioned Brater’s authority to remove him from his election duties and believes conducting a hand count is legal under Michigan law.
Research shows that machine counting is faster and more accurate than manual counting. Brater said in his letter that the proper procedure after the polls close is to store ballots in “secure, numerically sealed containers.”
According to the New York Times, Schierkolk emphasized in an interview that counting hands would be legal under the state constitution.
Failure to comply with the order from his office, which is led by Michigan’s secretary of state, is a criminal offense, Brater wrote.
“Your past actions and statements, detailed in previous letters, indicate that you and the Deputy Clerk are unwilling to fulfill your responsibilities as Clerk,” Brater said.
Since 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 the more laborious, error-prone process of hand counting, despite no there is evidence of widespread fraud or major irregularities.
In 2023, a Republican clerk in Shelby Township, Michigan, was barred by the state from administering elections after he was accused of acting as a fake voter for then-President Donald Trump in 2020. He pleaded not guilty and is running for re-election as Shelby Township clerk.
