Michigan’s Secretary of State candidates shared their visions for the office during a candidate forum Tuesday night.
The event was hosted by the League of Women Voters.
Many of the questions came back to the office’s role as Michigan’s top elections official. Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini, the Republican nominee, often tied his vision to his experience in office.
On a question about restoring voters’ trust and making sure information comes out in a timely way, Forlini said he’s found success by listening to people’s concerns and making sure that processes are followed. Beyond that, he said, Michigan is behind other states when it comes to speedily announcing vote tallies.
“We need to balance between efficiency, trusting our clerks, but also being able to verify everything that they do along the way. And, when they don’t, we make them redo things,” Forlini said.
His Democratic opponent, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, focused his answer more on combating misinformation and increasing transparency.
Gilchrist said he’ll make it easy for people to see how elections run and how votes are verified.
“I’ll build a rapid response system so that when false claims about elections begin to circulate, the department can respond quickly with clear facts, and in language anyone can understand. And I’ll work with clerks so voters in every community can hear the same accurate information from their local officials,” he said.
Other candidates, like Libertarian Party nominee Christine Sloan, said they’d work with local law enforcement and other officials to address people's fears faster.
“I do think that the problem here really is that there’s an increased concern of safety and that points to a concern that’s happening with the public,” Sloan said. “The public has a concern for the integrity of our election process.”
Green Party Candidate Eric Borregard said he felt election security worries are being “overblown.”
“We need to go back to the way it was before and let people be more free to go and vote,” Borregard said. He went on to criticize efforts to tighten Michigan’s voter ID laws.
Other parts of the forum focused on how to improve the Secretary of State Office’s general services to the public like vehicle registration and regulating notaries.
U.S. Taxpayers Party nominee Scott Aughney said he’d re-open some of the offices that have closed while ensuring walk-in appointments are always honored.
“I would like to examine possibly opening some small satellites across the state,” Aughney said.
