Public addresses Macon Township Board on electronic voter data request denial

MACON TWP. — Four people spoke to the Macon Township Board during a special meeting July 24 to consider an appeal to a denial of a Freedom of Information Act request for voter files.

Macon Township resident Nancy Peltcs, who made the initial June 1 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the electronic pollbook (EPB) data from the November 2022 and May 2023 elections spoke first, reiterating her thoughts that the information is needed to ensure fair elections.

The request was denied June 6 by Macon Township Clerk Julia DeJonghe Marshall, who is also the township's FOIA coordinator.

Scott Aughney, a resident of Leoni Township in Jackson County who wrote a 55-page appeal of the denial, spoke next. Aughney ran and lost in the 2022 Republican primary for the Jackson County Commission and finished last in a run for the Michigan Republican Party chair position earlier this year.

Mark Nichols, a former supervisor of Adams Township in Hillsdale County, also spoke in favor of releasing the data along with Raisin Township resident Matt Witty. A request for EPB data was also recently made and denied in Raisin Township.

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The appeal was unanimously denied by the Macon Township Board, much like the denial in Raisin Township, simply because the EPB data no longer exists. A paper copy of the EPB for each election is kept at the municipality and county clerk's office and can be viewed by the public. These paper files do not contain sensitive voter identification details, which cannot be disclosed to the public in the interest of ensuring fair elections.

All EPB files are deleted seven days after the final canvass, unless there is a pending recount, court challenge, or audit or Secretary of State order. This keeps voter data secure and prevents the wrong files from being used in future elections, according to the April 2022 electronic pollbook election inspector manual from the Michigan Department of State Bureau of Elections.

The EPB information is downloaded from the state's Qualified Voter File (QVF) and is loaded to a laptop computer prior to each election.

Once the EPB software is loaded to the laptop, the software allows election inspectors to look up a voter’s registration record, confirm their registration is correct, and assign a ballot to that voter, essentially automating the typical paper process.

Election inspectors must contact the local clerk to verify the status of an absentee ballot before issuing a ballot to a voter who, according to the EPB software, has already returned an absent voter ballot.

Security is maintained throughout the election process by using an encrypted flash drive. The flash drive is password protected and passwords are never kept with flash drives. The encrypted flash drive is used to transfer files back and forth between the QVF computer and the EPB laptop.

After the close of polls on Election Day, the EPB software generates reports comprising the ballot summary, the list of voters, and the remarks report to complete the official precinct record — paper binder pollbook — and a voter history file that can be uploaded into the QVF to update voter history.

These reports must be delivered to the receiving board on the encrypted flash drive in a sealed container by two election inspectors of opposing political parties after the polls close. The receiving board then prints the reports and completes the paper binder pollbook.

Both Pelcts and Aughney represented Election Integrity Fund and Force, a group that filed a lawsuit to decertify the 2020 presidential election, in the December 2022 recounts of Proposals 2 and 3.

Peltcs was an EIF recount observer in Ann Arbor and Aughney was an observer in both Jackson and Detroit.

Aughney said he is an independent election investigator who has spent the past two years dedicating most of his time and income to this work. He said he spent 60 hours writing the Macon Township appeal and that he is investigating the election process because he believes public records are being altered and unlawfully deleted in violation of state and federal laws.

Aughney also claims that the laptops used during elections are communicating on the internet through programming on the EPB software. According to the April 2022 electronic pollbook election inspector manual from the Michigan Department of State Bureau of Elections, the laptop where the EPB software is installed is never connected to any networks and is always in “airplane mode” with Wi-Fi disabled.

He said he is in the process of filing civil and criminal charges in communities around the state where these type of FOIA requests have been made and plans to do so in Macon Township.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Public speaks to Macon Township Board on electronic voter data request