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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement that
former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott, 52, has been
charged with five felonies related to unauthorized use of a
computer, concealing a voting machine, and misconduct in office,
and one misdemeanor for disobeying the secretary of state. The
most serious count carries a potential seven-year prison term.
Nessel also added three felonies to the charges faced by Scott's
attorney Stefanie Lambert, who was already facing multiple
charges over allegations she accessed and tampered with voting
machines in other incidents across the state.
Neither Scott nor Lambert immediately responded to a request for
comment. Lambert has previously denied wrongdoing.
Scott, a Republican, had overseen voting in rural Adams Township
until the state revoked her authority over elections in 2021 for
resisting state orders to allow testing and maintenance on the
voting tabulator in her care, claiming it would erase evidence
of potential fraud. Scott withheld a critical component of the
tabulator until it was seized by state police, law enforcement
records show.
In addition to disregarding orders from the state authorities
regarding the tabulator, Nessel accused Scott and Lambert of
providing a computer examiner unauthorized access to non-public
voter information in violation of state law.
"When elected officials and their proxies use their positions to
promote baseless conspiracies, show blatant disregard for voter
privacy, and break the law in the process, it undermines the
very essence of the democratic process," Nessel said in the
statement.
Reuters reported on the potential violation in late 2022,
detailing Scott's sharing of a file containing confidential
voter data with Benjamin Cotton, an information-technology
expert who had worked with voter-fraud conspiracists seeking
unauthorized access to election systems in other states.
Scott's actions were part of a national effort by public
officials and others seeking evidence of Trump's false
stolen-election claims. The allegations against Scott have
parallels to the high-profile case of Tina Peters, the clerk in
Mesa County, Colorado, who is set to go to trial this year over
an alleged scheme to breach secure equipment in her own
elections office in 2021 to try to uncover evidence of election
fraud.
(reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut. Editing by
Gerry Doyle)
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