(NewsNation) — The race for county clerk in a Michigan community has ignited familiar arguments over election denial and alleged fraud.
Years after the Republican-leaning Antrim County incorrectly announced a landslide victory for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, concerns about election integrity haven’t quieted.
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Now, the sitting county clerk, who oversees the area’s election procedures, hopes to defeat one of her biggest skeptics who’s campaigning for the same role. The race, happening against the backdrop of another Trump presidential campaign, has garnered widespread attention for its ties to the 2020 election.
Sheryl Guy has worked for Antrim County for more than 40 years, and she’d like to retire. But she has concerns about “those seeking to replace her” as county clerk.
That’s the pitch the Antrim County Democratic Party outlines in its plea for voters to reelect Guy as a write-in candidate.
Campaigning for Guy’s position is Victoria Bishop, a woman whom The Associated Press described as a “vocal proponent of election conspiracy theories” and the wife of a conservative radio host.
BELLAIRE, MI – September 9: A campaign sign for Victoria Bishop next to an American flag in Bellaire, Michigan on Sept. 9, 2024. (Photo by Nic Antaya for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
If elected, Bishop has promised to “clean up the Qualified Voter Files (QVF),” “remove ‘Dead People’ and Names who no longer live in (Antrim County)” and “Hand Count every ballot” to make sure they match the machine’s tape.
Her victory in the primary election prompted Guy to delay her retirement and seek reelection via a write-in campaign.
Guy, backed by the local Democratic Party, said she voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020. But her role overseeing that same election drew national attention and positioned Guy as the target of unfounded conspiracy theories.
“In one Michigan county alone, 6,000 votes were switched from Trump to Biden and the same systems are used in the majority of states in our country,” Trump told his supporters during his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the Ellipse.
The county in question was Antrim — a Republican-leaning area near the resort town of Traverse City. Shortly after the presidential election in 2020, the county reported a landslide win for Biden.
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The problem was attributed to human error, not any issue with voting machines, and the results were quickly corrected to show that Trump won the county.
That did nothing to calm the speculation. Those who questioned Trump’s loss in Michigan quickly latched on to the reporting error to suggest that voting machines were responsible for widespread fraud, even though there has been no such evidence.
“I feel that [Trump’s] goal at that time was to use Antrim County to open up other jurisdictions with problems,” Guy told NBC News.
BELLAIRE, MI – September 9: Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy works in her office at the Antrim County Government Building in Bellaire, Michigan on Sept. 9, 2024. (Photo by Nic Antaya for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
An analysis of the incident cited “vulnerabilities” and “human errors that directly led to inaccurate results.” Still, there was “no evidence that any of these problems was ever exploited in Antrim County,” and the errors were not the product of a security breach, the March 2021 analysis stated.
Michigan’s concerns about election integrity mirror those playing out on the national stage.
This year’s election is the first presidential contest since Trump began spreading lies about widespread voter fraud costing him reelection in 2020.
The false claims, which he continues to repeat, have undermined public confidence in elections and in the people who oversee them among a broad swath of Republican voters.
Investigations have found no widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines four years ago, and each of the battleground states where Trump disputed his loss has affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
