Michigan clerk who denies election results faces recall in divided county

Deepening tensions in rural and conservative Hillsdale county, Michigan, are coming to a head in a recall election for an election-denying township clerk who has been accused of spreading misinformation and mishandling a vote tabulator.

If the 2 May recall is successful, Scott will be replaced by Suzy Roberts, a retiree who spent most of her career in the auto industry and has worked as a poll worker. Although Roberts has historically voted Republican, she is running as an independent, as required by the rules guiding recall elections.

But after the 2020 presidential election, politics in rural and deep red Hillsdale county soured. A faction of hard-right party members within the county Republican party took control of the party, renouncing more than 60 local GOP delegates who did not share their political vision and rallying around false claims that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. In December, 2022, Swan logged on to Facebook and announced her hiatus from some political activities, including filming city council meetings in Hillsdale.

At an 11 August 2022 county GOP convention, members of the so-called America First faction disavowed more than 60 members of the party. Armed guards blocked the members from accessing the meeting. Fourteen days later, members who had been disavowed and their allies elected a new slate of leadership and claimed sole legitimacy as the Hillsdale county Republican executive committee.

Residents say the split in the Republican party has spilled over into the wider Hillsdale county community, breaking up friendships and sowing mistrust among neighbors.

Across Michigan, which Trump lost by 2.8 points, voters have overwhelmingly rejected election denialism and embraced measures to expand voting access. Proposition 2, a ballot measure that established early voting and expanded absentee voting passed by 60%. Secretary of state Jocelyn Benson won her seat in a definitive race against Kristina Karamo, who spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, and voters in the state elected Dana Nessel as attorney general over Matthew DePerno, who led multiple unsuccessful legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election in Michigan.

But in Hillsdale county, as many residents are eager to point out, the opposite was true. Karamo earned 66% of the vote and DePerno swept, nearly earning 70% of Hillsdale county voters in his election.

Janice Roberts, a longtime poll worker in Adams Township, said that false claims of fraud in recent years have whipped up unfounded fears of election tampering and fraud among community members in the county.

During a local election on 4 November 2021 Roberts alleged that Scott and members of the rightwing faction in the county GOP hovered uncomfortably close to poll workers, creating an intimidating atmosphere.

Swan, who caucused with the America First Republicans until recently, said after leaving the rightwing group and criticizing them online, she was met with threats and slurs.

For Roberts, who is running to replace Scott as township clerk, the election is as much about community relationships as it is election denialism.