'Incredibly alarming': Republican poll worker in Michigan charged with tampering with voting equipment
By: Sky Palma
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Michigan poll worker has been charged after a witness saw him inserting a USB drive into an electronic poll book after the Aug. 2 statewide primary, the Detroit Free Press reports.
James Holkeboer, an election inspector at the Gaines Township 8th Precinct, has been charged with falsifying records under election law and using a computer to commit a crime.
As Detroit Free Press points out, poll books contain voter registration data that includes personal and confidential information that election workers use to oversee elections at their precincts.
Holkeboer registered with the county as a Republican, according to Michigan Radio . Detroit Free Press reported that "an individual with the same name served as an alternate delegate for the 3rd Congressional District at the Michigan Republican Party's State Endorsement Convention earlier this year."
Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons says the incident did not result in any unwarranted access to voting machines or election results.
"(T)his incident is extremely egregious and incredibly alarming. Not only is it a violation of Michigan law, but it is a violation of public trust and of the oath all election workers are required to take," Posthumus Lyons said.
"Let me be very clear: voter fraud and illegal election activity in Kent County will not be tolerated. Our citizens deserve to have faith in their elections and in those who work them. I will do everything possible to keep Kent County’s elections secure, transparent, fair, and accurate. If someone or something threatens that, we will take aggressive action to protect our elections and hold those responsible accountable."
She said the Kent County Clerk's Office will conduct a post-election audit of the precinct and the poll book in question will be replaced.
A spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a statement to the Free Press, "we take seriously all violations of election law and will continue to work with the relevant authorities to assure there are consequences for those who break the law ... Michigan voters can be confident that their votes will be counted accurately and securely.”
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Sometimes I think some people want to cause chaos.
they want to terrorize election workers in order to replace them with partisans that will play ball when called upon.
Prime example of why there should be voter I.D.
This has nothing to do with voter ID.
It has to do with a republican trying to invade the system.
Exactly Ender.
It has everything to do with voter ID. he was tampering with "poll books contain voter registration data that includes personal and confidential information that election workers use to oversee elections at their precincts". If a person Republican or Democrat shows up to vote and has to present a voter ID that matches the election poll books the ability to commit fraud is greatly eliminated. Do you have a problem with Voter ID?
You are still completely ignoring what has happened and harping on ID....
If you have a response please post it.
A response to what? That you cannot see the difference between hacking a system and an ID?
He was trying to "HACK VOTER ROLLS", you can not see the need to have a Voter ID requirement. What part of that don't you understand?
What the hell does that have to do with voter ID?
Hint...not a fucking thing....
What he is saying that if some idiot gets into the voter rolls, changes certain information to thousands or even millions of people and no one had caught it, then an ID while voting would be the one thing to have flagged that something was amiss, otherwise, with no ID, it may have never had been caught.
If someone is going to change the voters rolls, ID would not matter at all.
It's hopeless.
Let's just say this Republican hacker adds 2,000 voters to the roles.
No ID - he submits 2000 mail in ballots and they are counted.
With ID - nothing happens.
Do you think that matters?
Sure it would.
Let's say this idiot changed the spelling of names of thousands of registered democratic voters. These voters show up to vote, the election worker says they do not exist on the voter rolls and are unable to vote.
If these people had a current voter registration card and an ID to prove they are who they say they are, then they would be able to vote.
In that state one already has to show ID to vote, so the point is moot.
“…and are unable to vote.”
No one is ever excluded from casting a ballot.
If any discrepancies occur, a provisional ballot can be cast…and after bi-partisan signature verification, any required curing, and final adjudication, that ballot will be counted.
This is a blue state. I would be HIGHLY skeptical, as a registered republican, to have to cast a provisional ballot in ANY blue state because my name did not show correctly on the voter rolls, especially if I had been voting regularly for many years.
It does, but not all blue states do. This could happen anywhere and never get caught.
When the country loses faith in our institution and voting procedure we are in a lot of trouble.
Sometimes I think that is exactly what people are trying to do.
I think they are so frustrated that they are just lashing out, at everyone and everything…including the institutions that are our only recourse.
I thought apathy would be our ultimate downfall, but the anger out there is palpable…scary, scary times…
Trump gave him the idea with his false accusations about why he was defeated.
So Trump claimed people broke the law to commit fraud against him and that somehow motivated this guy to break the law and commit fraud. That makes no sense.
The accusations supporting Trump's claims of fraud included tampering with voting machines. Tampering with a voting machine is what this guy did. Makes sense to me.
Republicans have adopted the idea that the way to prove voter fraud is real is to commit voter fraud themselves and say “see? I told you it was real.”
To uber-partisans, the party politics is a religion. Some will do whatever it takes (in their minds) to secure a win. The ends justify the means and all that crap.
Partisanship rots the soul and hampers critical thinking.
Tell us about all the Democrats who tampered with voting equipment.
This is not an issue of partisanship. It is an issue of a disease within the Republican Party. They are filled with conspiracy wackos.
You are being obtuse.
Why? This story is about an R example. Oh, I see, you have yet again INCORRECTLY read "both sides are equal" into my comment. Get a grip, JR, this is obnoxious.
That said, there are in fact D partisans who will also 'do what is necessary' for their cause. So, in that regard, obviously both sides have dishonest uber-partisans. People will be people regardless of the party to which they are attached.
I disagree, I think this is driven by uber-partisanship. But I do agree that the GoP is replete with conspiracy theorists and various forms of nutcases as evidenced by those who have and continue to support the Big Lie and who defend Trump at every turn.
Lose your insertion of "both sides-ism" into comments by members.
OK, you tell us about all the Democrats who have tampered with voting equipment. This is not a "both sides" situation, which a reference purely to party "partisanship" would imply.
It would be nice if you could criticize the conspiracy nuts without reference to the other side (partisanship as a term implies there are multiple sides to what is being discussed).
A reference to partisanship does not imply that for every GoP uber-partisan willing to "do what it takes" there is a corresponding D uber-partisan. I am not aware of any stats on this. You are reading that in all on your own. Again, this is obnoxious.
My reference to partisanship is pointing out how uber-partisanship can drive people to do stupid / dishonest things.
Exactly, partisanship in the US, preposterous.
The mere use of the word 'partisanship' triggers your 'both sides-ism' obsession?
Look at what you are doing right here. You are on my case about referencing the D party yet I made no such reference. It is all coming from you.
Out of curiosity, is it your position that there are no D partisans or no D uber-partisans??
Have any Democrats been accused of tampering with voting machines in such a way? The issue with almost all of this election related tampering is the Republicans, not "partisanship".
I am off this seed.
Do understand what the word partisan means? It transcends the one action you want to hyper-partisanly focus on. Your posts here deflect from the focus you, yourself want everyone to be keyed on.
Accused? No doubt. Actually do it? I have no evidence that any D has done this. But again JR, this seed and my comments are in regard to this particular GoP operative.
My position is that in this specific case, the operative was driven by uber-partisanship to try to cheat. Disagree as you wish, but cease attempting to twist my point into a declaration that "both sides are equal".
Now, that said yet again, there is nothing whatsoever stopping an uber-partisan D from trying to cheat an election. You recognize that, right? The motivation for cheating is not that they are affiliated with a particular party but that they believe it is so important that their party 'win' that they are willing to cheat to achieve this. Surely you are not going to suggest that this 'end justifies the means' philosophy is strictly a GoP phenomenon.
Is tampering somehow worse than just bribing the workers to change or add votes?
Former U.S. Congressman and Philadelphia Political Operative Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Election Fraud
Former U.S. Congressman and Philadelphia Political Operative Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Election Fraud | USAO-EDPA | Department of Justice
Dems have no reason to act virtuous...
One's thinking would already be hampered to fall prey to hyper-partisanship in the first place. As with religion it takes no thought, no logic, or no ethics - only faith one is on the correct path. Then like some flavors of religion any questions renders one an enemy. It's funny when it's their own, but tragic when it's everyone else.
"...after a witness saw him inserting a USB drive into an electronic poll book..."
It looks more like stealing data than trying to manipulate it - which is some weird reassurance since the simple appearance of impropriety is alarming.