Statement from Secretary of State Spokesperson Tracy Wimmer on audit plans from the state Office of the Auditor General

JULY 29, 2021

'The 2020 election was the most secure and accessible election in Michigan history. The Bureau of Elections has always worked with the Office of the Auditor General in full transparency and will continue to do so, and welcomes OAG review of the five post-election procedural audits it conducted but maintains that, especially in this time of rampant election misinformation, election audits should be conducted by election experts.

The OAG has said it wants to audit the post-election audits carried out by local township, city and county election officials. As these local officials aren't a part of state government, it's quite possible that for the state to audit them would be not just be government overreach, it would be illegal under our state constitution. For this reason, we asked the Attorney General for an opinion on how the law applies in this situation.

Also, we are concerned that because of OAG personnel's relative lack of understanding, as compared with local election clerks, of the complexity of election procedures and processes, they would be unable to replicate all of the technical processes carried out by election clerks. Any differing outcomes on this basis would unfairly reflect badly on our hardworking, high-integrity clerks, and it would further fuel misinformation about the 2020 election.

The Bureau continues to work transparently with the OAG on other aspects of its audit while maintaining that actual election experts and officials are the people with the knowledge and authority to protect the votes of all Michiganders and their well-founded faith in our democracy.'

# # #

For media questions, contact
Tracy Wimmer at 517-281-1876.

We welcome questions and comments at the Contact the Secretary of State page.

Customers may call the Department of State Information Center to
speak to a customer-service representative at 888-SOS-MICH (767-6424).

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.