{"id":1655309,"date":"2022-09-23T14:32:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T18:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1655309"},"modified":"2022-09-23T14:34:44","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T18:34:44","slug":"flint-mich-clerk-resigns-after-elections-group-calls-out-lopsided-number-of-democrat-poll-watchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/flint-mich-clerk-resigns-after-elections-group-calls-out-lopsided-number-of-democrat-poll-watchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Flint, Mich. Clerk Resigns After Elections Group Calls Out Lopsided Number Of Democrat Poll Watchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fflint-mich-clerk-resigns-after-elections-group-calls-out-lopsided-number-of-democrat-poll-watchers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1655309&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Flint, Michigan\u2019s longtime city clerk is retiring after an election integrity group sent a letter to her office demanding she balance out the number of Democrat and Republican election inspectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 6, Pure Integrity Michigan Elections (PIME) and attorney Erick Kaardal of the Thomas More Society sent a demand letter to Flint and City Clerk Inez Brown threatening legal action if they do not balance out the number of partisan poll watchers before the November general election. As previously\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/06\/city-officials-in-flint-michigan-disproportionately-hired-democratic-poll-watchers-in-violation-of-state-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, during Flint\u2019s Aug. 2 primary, the city hired 422 Democrats compared to just 27 Republican election inspectors \u2014 in direct violation of a Michigan state\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislature.mi.gov\/(S(afgzhthny2cusiy1csmtfdh2))\/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&amp;objectname=mcl-168-674\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statute<\/a>\u00a0that requires equal representation of party election inspectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 8, Brown, after serving as Flint\u2019s city clerk for 25 years, abruptly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganradio.org\/politics-government\/2022-09-08\/flint-asks-for-secretary-of-states-help-with-november-election-after-city-clerk-announces-retirement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced her resignation<\/a>\u00a0effective Sept. 30 \u2014 roughly one month before the November election. Brown gave no reason for her resignation and caught city officials by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy administrative office was taken by surprise,\u201d Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flintbeat.com\/flint-city-clerk-set-to-retire-mayor-calls-on-state-for-election-help\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told the Flint Beat<\/a>. \u201cI had no foreknowledge of this occurring this soon.\u201d Because of Brown\u2019s resignation, Neeley reached out to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson\u2019s office for help running the city\u2019s elections. Benson\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/michigan-government\/who-running-secretary-state-michigan-2022\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">is up for re-election this year<\/a>, raising questions about the ethics of her involvement in Flint\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan her office be considered impartial in running the elections in Flint?\u201d Patrice Johnson, chair of PIME told The Federalist. \u201cThe law states that if you are running for office, you cannot be an election inspector in the precinct in which you\u2019re running.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite such questions, Johnson sees Brown\u2019s resignation as a step in the right direction. Brown\u2019s tenure as Flint city clerk has led to multiple controversies, including giving mayoral candidates the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganradio.org\/politics-government\/2015-05-31\/the-future-path-of-flint-mayors-race-may-become-clear-this-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrong filing deadline in 2015<\/a>\u00a0and alleged failure to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganradio.org\/politics-government\/2020-08-25\/pastors-accuse-county-officials-of-trying-to-bully-flint-over-handling-of-elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">process absentee ballots<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pressure we\u2019ve put on the city led to this,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThis is a HUGE win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of Brown\u2019s resignation, Johnson expects Flint to fully comply with PIME\u2019s demand letter and balance its number of partisan election inspectors in time for the November election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a state with more than 7 million registered voters, and where an election inspector need not live in the precinct in which they work, there is no excuse for an unhealthy imbalance of workers at our township and municipal elections,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Victoria Marshall is a staff writer at The Federalist. Her writing has been featured in the New York Post, National Review, and Townhall. She graduated from Hillsdale College in May 2021 with a major in politics and a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @vemrshll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flint, Michigan\u2019s longtime city clerk is retiring after an election integrity group sent a letter to her office demanding she balance out the number of Democrat and Republican election inspectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1130,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1655309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}