Michigan election worker charged with tampering with voting equipment
An election worker in a western Michigan town has been charged with two felonies after allegedly inserting a flash drive into a computer containing confidential voter registration data during an election in August, local officials said on Wednesday.
At the Aug. 2 primary, an election worker was seen inserting a USB drive into the computer used to administer the election at a precinct in Gaines Township in Kent County, according to a statement by county clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons.
The incident highlights the so-called "insider threat" risk that has increasingly worried election officials, especially in battleground states like Michigan where falsehoods about systemic voter fraud in the 2020 election have spread most widely.
"This 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," Lyons said in the statement.
Chris Becker, the county's prosecuting attorney, said he had charged the election worker, James Donald Holkeboer, with falsifying election records and using a computer to commit a crime. If convicted, he could face up to nine years in prison.
Holkeboer could not be immediately reached for comment.
While Lyons did not name Holkeboer, she said the incident involved one of the "everyday citizens trained and certified by clerks to work the precincts and absentee county boards" and was not an employee of the county or Gaines Township. Read More...
