Michigan official at the center of 2020 election controversy loses write-in campaign

By The Associated Press

FILE - Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy is seen Feb. 18, 2021, in Bellaire, Mich. (John L. Russell/The Detroit News via AP, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/John L. Russell]

BELLAIRE, Mich. (AP) — An election official in a small Michigan county that was a cradle for unfounded election conspiracy theories in 2020 lost a write-in campaign to keep her job.

Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy had said she wouldn’t seek reelection, but got in the race after the Republican primary election in August.

Guy received 5,500 write-in votes but lost to the GOP nominee, Victoria Bishop, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin Tuesday, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.

“At least they won’t question these results,” Guy said of her critics.

An error that was quickly corrected during the 2020 count in Antrim County triggered suspicion that voting machines were responsible for widespread fraud, even though there was no evidence of it.

The county, which favors Republicans, had mistakenly reported a shocking victory for Democrat Joe Biden. The problem was attributed to human error, not any issue with voting machines, and the results were fixed to show that Donald Trump had won Antrim.

Guy, who voted for Trump in 2020, has worked in county government for more than 40 years. In August, she said she would run a write-in campaign to keep her job out of the hands of election deniers.

Bishop, an advocate of election conspiracy theories, campaigned on a pledge to hand-count every ballot.

“I’m looking forward to serving all the people of our beloved county and implementing new technologies to make all areas of the Clerk’s office more efficient at lower costs to the taxpayers of our county,” Bishop said Wednesday.