Two local recount observers request electronic pollbook data in Macon Township

MACON TWP. — Two local December 2022 recount observers representing the Election Integrity Force recently requested electronic pollbook data in Macon Township for the November 2022 and May 2023 elections.

Nancy Peltcs made the initial Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request June 1. Peltcs said she is a Macon Township resident but listed a Tecumseh address in her request. The request was denied June 6 by Macon Township Clerk and FOIA Coordinator Julia DeJonghe Marshall.

DeJonghe Marshall said in her denial that the information is exempt from disclosure because it would "disclose procedures, methods, results, organizational information system infrastructure, hardware, or software that would impact the cybersecurity of the township" as well as the township's voting systems.

Lenawee County Clerk Roxann Holloway said several local clerks have received FOIA requests throughout the state, regarding both the qualified voter file (QVR) and the electronic pollbook (EPB) data for the November 2022 election.

“When receiving FOIA requests for electronic copies or extracts of reports, we consult our legal counsel, along with checking with our election programmers and the Bureau of Elections for direction,” Holloway said. “Due to the security and sensitive information, we do not want to publicly release data or files that would reveal the software design or data architecture, or compromise the security and safeguard of the software. These records also contain personal identifiable information for voters.”

Holloway said her office has the paper copies of the EPB data reports that were printed on election night.

“I have shared that these are available and if they would like log files or voter history, they can contact the Bureau of Elections,” Holloway said.

Scott Aughney, a resident of Leoni Township in Jackson County, who ran and lost in the 2022 Republican primary for the Jackson County Commission and finished last in a run for state GOP chair earlier this year, joined Peltcs, writing a 55-page appeal to Macon Township and speaking before the township board Monday, July 10.

Aughney said he is an independent election investigator, who has spent the last 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.

The April 2022 electronic pollbook election inspector manual from the Michigan Department of State Bureau of Elections said the EPB software is downloaded from the qualified voter file (QVF) software and is loaded to a laptop 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.

All EPB files are deleted seven days after the final canvass, unless there is a pending recount, court challenge, or audit/Secretary of State order. This keeps voter data secure and prevents the wrong files from being used in future elections, the manual said.

The laptop is never connected to any networks and is always in “airplane mode” with Wi-Fi disabled, when the EPB software is installed on the laptop, the manual said.

The issue is not specific to Macon Township, Aughney said. A FOIA request for EPB data has also been made and denied in Raisin Township. Aughney said he plans to make similar requests throughout Lenawee County.

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Aughney and Peltcs 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.

Proposal 2 received nearly 60 percent of the vote in the midterm to establish early voting in Michigan and pre-empts GOP efforts to enact more stringent voter ID rules among other changes. Proposal 3 to enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution passed with nearly 57 percent of the vote. The recounts sought a review of too few votes to change any election outcomes.

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

The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Two local recount observers request electronic pollbook data in Macon