Commissioners approve resolutions, park plan

BELLAIRE — After a short public hearing on the county's parks and recreation plan update, and an update on the COVID-19 situation in Antrim County, Antrim County's nine-member Board of Commissioners approved resolutions supporting local businesses and asking their prosecuting attorney to look into allegations made regarding the county's voting machine during a virtual evening meeting last week. 

Tabled from an earlier meeting, the resolution made by District 7 Commissioner Dawn LaVanway requested that Prosecuting Attorney Jim Rossiter look into claims that a maintenance file had been deleted from the tabulator's master file, removing 1,329 ballots, on Nov. 21, 2020. According to those allegations, made in a report filed by forensic investigators given access to the county's election equipment, attempts were then made to "zero-out" the machine, but were unsuccessful in doing so.

During a subsequent lengthy discussion of the proposed resolution, District 3 Commissioner Karen Bargy asked that the proposal be tabled pending resolution of the lawsuit filed by Central Lake resident Bill Bailey against Antrim County alleging election fraud, which is still in litigation. Although supported by Commissioners Boettcher, Helwig, and Ricksgers, that motion failed to receive the approval of the rest of the board, leading to approval of the initial proposal with a vote of five to four.

In his support of tabling the matter, Boettcher said, "We're not even sure this happened, and we have no control over our Prosecuting Attorney's actions."

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