Michigan clerks get FOIAs for ballots from 2016 general election

Municipal clerks in the tri-community are among those throughout the state who are being asked for copies of the ballots from the Nov. 8, 2016 election for President of the United States.
Van Buren Township Deputy Clerk Joanne Montgomery said there is a lot of time and effort involved in making true copies of all the ballots and all the envelopes from the absentee ballots, as requested, as well as the other items requested.
VBT Deputy Clerk Montgomery said she initially estimated a fee of between $20,000 and $30,000 for making the 42,000 copies necessary because there are three ballot sides, but the township has asked for an extension to 15 days to respond to the request.
Montgomery said VBT has a plotter, which copies blueprints, so they are able to do true copies in the original size. She said some municipalities are offering a smaller size, which is a huge difference in cost and some officials suggest she do the same. On Tuesday she said they are doing a review before sending it on to the township attorney for his final review later that day.
There are 11 separate categories of requests for ballot information on the two-page Freedom of Information Act request that arrived locally on Aug. 20.
Belleville City Clerk Sherri Scharf said the state elections director confirmed that all clerks in Michigan received the request and all clerks are advised to confer with their attorneys. On Monday she said the request is being reviewed by the city attorney.
Sumpter Township Deputy Clerk Dawn Hadyniak said Sumpter received the FOIA request and the township has filed an extension so they can further assess time and cost.
The FOIA request includes a statement: “Please note that the Michigan Attorney General has concluded that cast ballots are public records, and a person must be allowed to receive copies of cast ballots upon request. See Michigan Attorney General Opinion Nol.7247 (May 13, 2010).”
In a news report, Westland City Clerk Richard LeBlanc said his staff is working on a response to the request and some clerks have received deposits to begin the work.
The requestor is someone named Emily on behalf of United Action Group with a post office box in Astoria, New York. Under law the ballots must be kept for 22 months after an election and this expires in September.
VBT Deputy Clerk Montgomery said she guesses they are trying to find out if there was any tampering or hacking of the 2016 election to influence the results.
She said she’s confident that there was no tampering with the VBT election.
Belleville Clerk Scharf said since she is the only person in the city clerk’s office the thought of having to do all this is daunting, especially with everything it will take to get ready for the upcoming Nov. 6 election.
Montgomery said other questions have come up, like what if “Emily” wants to review the ballots first. She said state law mandates a chain of custody that allows only so many people to be able to touch the ballots, so she would have to turn the ballots for “Emily” to see. And, the ballot bags have to be unsealed and then resealed each day, with time spent documenting this.
And, after agreeing to respond, the municipalities have to get it done in a reasonable time. With the big, mid-term election coming, time for the clerk’s office would have to be measured out, with documentation on why they couldn’t do more during that time span.
“There are so many things to think about,” Montgomery said.
According to a Tuesday night report in The Detroit News, the organization behind the FOIA requests was Priorities USA Action, a self-described progressive Super Pac which spent $6.4 million for Clinton and $126 million against Trump in the 2016 election.
According to the report, the group contracted a third party to request the copies of Michigan ballots. Trump won Michigan by 10,000 votes over Clinton in the 2016 election. According to the media report, donors to Priorities USA in 2015-16 were George Soros, James Simons, and Fred Eychaner.