Two Michigan election officials have been removed from their stations after informing state election officials, including the state's elections director, of their plan to hand count the votes due to their mistrust of electronic voting machines.
Michigan's elections director, Jonathan Brater, sent a letter informing Tom Schierkolk, the clerk of Rock River Township in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and his deputy, David LaMere, that they were relieved from their duties to supervise the election in Michigan, according to the New York Times.
This comes after the two stated that they favored hand-counting ballots within their town, a method that would actively delay election results from being tabulated due to its time-consuming nature.
In his letter to Schierkolk, Brater pointed out that conducting a hand-count of ballots is in violation of Michigan law because it could compromise election results and undermine voting security. He also indicated that Schierkolk refused to follow state procedure even after being requested to do so.
Brater instructed Schierkolk and LaMere to relinquish their duties to other state election officials "in order to ensure public trust and confidence in the integrity and security of elections".
Schierkolk, who continues to believe that a hand count would be in accordance with state legislation, has referred to his dismissal as "baseless."
Schierkolk has been closely linked to a support base associated with former President Donald Trump who purports the idea that electronic voting machines are insecure.
This conspiracy theory came to prominence following Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential race, a loss which he partly attributed to voting machines unlawfully changing votes to Joseph R. Biden Jr. even though he had no proof.
"It speaks to the efforts that we are not going to tolerate any attempts to circumvent the law," said Angela Benander, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State.
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