OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — As some still try and cast doubt on the 2020 election, local officials are hoping to quell lingering concerns. In Ottawa County, they’re making a concerted effort to give the public a close look at the election process.
“We were getting so many calls from voters who legitimately had a lot of questions about the process and we wanted to be as open and transparent as we possibly could be and just laying out the facts of how this election was conducted,” Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck told us.
Every county in Michigan is required to hold a post-election audit, but they aren’t required to make the process public.
This year, Roebuck and the Ottawa County Elections team made the change themselves.
On Monday, their office released a detailed report full of facts and figures, that take readers through the step by step process of ballot counting and their county-wide audit.
Each section provides a letter grade for how they did and areas they are looking to improve moving forward.
“Our goal was to make it simple and make it as transparent as possible,” Roebuck said
“I also hope that voters realize there were 250 of these audits conducted around the state of Michigan and by and large, the results were very similar,” he added. “From the perspective of the security in our elections process, I think voters can be confident.”
The report could set a new standard for how local election officials can offer more transparency in the election process.
“Election officials are certainly not perfect, it's a human process. So I think what's also important is for voters to see the record of us looking at those mistakes and fixing them moving forward,” Roebuck said.
“I'm encouraged by this report but hopefully we can get some other communities to jump on board as well,” he added.
To read the full report, click here.
