‘There’s no fraud here’: how a Republican official is addressing election denialism in his rural county

Abe Dane would be the first to admit he had concerns about election fraud during the 2020 election. He believed the elections in his own county, where he had worked the polls, were clean - but he wasn't sure about other counties in the state, where unfounded claims of fraud swirled in 2020.

That was before he took a position in local election administration. Now, with first-hand experience, Dane, the director of elections in Hillsdale county, Michigan, is confident in the process.

It's convincing others that's the challenge now.

Since 2020, deep-red Hillsdale county has been a flashpoint for election anxieties. Stephanie Scott, the elections clerk from Adams Township - one of the offices in Dane's jurisdiction - earned the attention of figures in Donald Trump's inner circle as she spread false claims of fraud and refused orders by the secretary of state's office to turn over voting equipment for regular maintenance. Scott was ousted in a recall campaign by activists who were fed up with her insistence on spreading the false claim that the last election was stolen from Trump.

On 8 May, the Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, announced felony charges against Scott and her attorney, Stefanie Lambert, for allegedly turning over private voter data from the 2020 election to an unauthorized third party.

Meanwhile, Scott has filed paperwork to challenge Dane in his fall election for Hillsdale county clerk.

The Guardian spoke with Abe Dane about running an elections office during troubled political times - and his own shifting view of election security.