According to the Detroit News, Dem. Michigan state Sen. Dayna Polehanki plans to introduce legislation that will penalize anyone found “pressuring, trying to coerce, or intimidating election workers” in Michigan.
The state senator claims that influencing election workers is a continuing problem that goes unpunished, noting that “it appears to happen with impunity. As a result, it continues.”
In Michigan, a special prosecutor is considering charging nine people who were provided election tabulators from three clerks. The suspects reportedly took the equipment from remote locations to hotel rooms and examined them.
This episode, however, is distinct from the one that prompted state Senator Polehanki to support the proposed legislation.
A Livonia, Michigan, election clerk was recently found to have been pressed by Republican leaders to provide them with hard drives & voting equipment that was used in the 2020 presidential election.
Susan Nash, a clerk, claims that in 2021, she was approached by then-state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, who urged her to produce hard drives from the voting machines so that “a group of cyber forensic experts” could investigate them.
According to the Detroit News, Colbeck planned to send an email to the Trump admin. in the name of Nash requesting federal assistance to check the voting devices. The letter addressed to Trump’s chief of staff, allegedly asked for “the assistance of federal funds to do a cyber forensics analysis of the machines’ technology.” According to Colbeck, the letter was never delivered.
Nash told the attorney general’s office that a city councilman in Livonia, Michigan, made her feel “threatened” by informing her that Colbeck was furious and that somebody may contact Fox News and claim she was “not complying.”
Nash and Republican officials exchanged comments on the legality of sending over electoral materials in a series of communications. Nash claims she was informed “it is likely” that she could be “the next person President Trump mentions.”
Patrick Colbeck defended his activities, claiming that he was developing arguments to “help 2020 election certification negotiations.”
“I think that would be excellent legislation,” state Senator Polehanki said of the election-worker measure, adding that she believes the new policy is needed.
In 2023, Dems. will control both the state House and Senate.
