Local officials educate on elections process in an effort to increase trust, transparency
Speakers hoped to build trust in the system by answering questions directly from community members and describing different measures put in place to protect it.
LOWELL, Mich. — “I want more than anything for our voters to have faith in that system, to have trust in the process and confidence in the outcomes of the election,” Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumous Lyons said as she spoke to community members in Lowell Tuesday night.
Lyons was one of several local election officials and experts gathered at the local Kent District Library branch as part of a meeting hosted by the group Keep Our Republic to tell the community how the election process works.
“How do we build that group of trusted, local individuals so when mom or dad or grandpa and grandpa see an ad, get that phone call, they can turn to someone and say ‘Is this real? How do I fact-check this and how do I know this election is secure? How do I know my vote is being counted, it’s being certified?'” Keep Our Republic Senior Advisor John Helmholdt said. “And then we’re going to have a clear end of the election where the results are certified and fact-based.”
The event included local clerks who oversee local elections as well as Jo Demarco, a local poll worker who credited the chance to see the system for her confidence in local practices.
“It’s knowing all the things and through those invitations that [Lyons] graciously extended to me [that] I got to know a lot more about the checks and balances that your office has in place,” Demarco said.
They’re checks and balances that Lyons laid out for community members. This included including canvasses and random audits to ensure the accuracy of results.
“That’s where we’ll go through all the absentee ballot applications, all of those kind of things, including a hand tally of the ballots in that precinct just, once again, to ensure that the election was accurate,” Lyons said as she described the audit process.
Officials answered questions from audience members about various parts of the process.
But with concerns swirling in recent years over new factors like artificial intelligence and how to best keep elections safe amid disinformation, some put a point on the importance of having discussions like this one.
“We can always do better, we should strive to do better,” Lyons said. “But I’m telling you, our elections in Kent County, our process in Michigan helps to ensure that our elections are secure, transparent, fair and accurate.”
For those with lingering questions, Lyons pointed voters to the county’s elections website for more information into how the election process works as well as what measures are in place to help secure it.
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