Republican Reps Fume At Michigan Decision To Delete Election Data Despite Contrary House Order

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Representatives of the Republican party in Michigan were fuming after the state’s Board of Elections (BOE) ordered county clerks to delete all election-related data from government computers, despite directives from Congress and the Senate to preserve all data from the election.

On December 1, the BOE, which is under the auspices of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), sent a memo to all clerks about recounts and the “release of voting equipment.”

One section, titled, “E-Pollbook laptops and flash drives,” stated that the the EPB (Electronic Poll-Book) software and associated files must be deleted from all devices by the seventh calendar day following the final canvass and certification of the election (November 30, 2020) unless a petition for recount has been filed and the recount has not been completed, a post-election audit is planned but has not yet been completed, or the deletion of the data has been prevented by an order of the court or the Secretary of State.

However Republican Rep. Matt Hall and state Senator Ed McBroom, both Republicans and chairmen of their respective oversight committees stressed that the memo sent by Benson violates a November 6th order from  House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R) and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) that election data must be preserved.

“Our work is about restoring confidence in our elections process. We are making sure that we have access to relevant and needed information as the Legislature performs its inquiry into what happened and that the information hasn’t been deleted in the face of that inquiry and litigation that is still out there,” Hall said.

“It is concerning this memo went out after a letter was delivered asking these entities to preserve evidence. As a result, we want an assurance that this information is being preserved.”

Hall and McBroom are requesting “immediate clarity” to ensure that the election data is being preserved in accordance with the directive from Chatfield and Shirkey.

Both Hall and McBroom held lengthy hearings this week in their respective committees and took testimony from election workers and observers who claimed that election rules and procedures were violated during the counting process at the TCF Center in Detroit.