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Embattled Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop and her husband, a conservative talk radio host best known as Trucker Randy, won’t face charges after she left him alone with her government computer.
In February, a county maintenance worker reported that Randy Bishop was sitting in the clerk’s office unsupervised watching a public video stream of a county commission meeting on the office computer. This led to concerns that he could have used the computer to access sensitive information, including the Qualified Voter File, the central database that contains Michigan’s voter roll and can only be accessed by election officials.
Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a news release Thursday that her office found “no evidence of criminal wrongdoing” or that anyone had tried to access the QVF from that computer at that time.
The investigation found that the clerk likely did allow her husband to use her computer — which matches what they later told the Michigan State Police — but that no sensitive county files were touched, either.
Regardless, Nessel said the case “surely represents a clear misstep from adequate practices and prudent policy.”
The Bishops could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday, but their attorney, Kevin Kijewski, said via text message that “the allegations against Clerk Bishop collapsed under scrutiny.”
“Clerk Bishop remains focused on serving the people of Antrim County,” he added.
Nessel’s finding puts to bed one piece of a series of controversies that has followed Victoria Bishop for several months. Some local activists are looking to recall Bishop from office after she allegedly changed a number of voters’ statuses in the QVF earlier this year, despite that being outside of what a county clerk is permitted to do. She then lost access to the QVF entirely in June after failing to adequately respond to questions from the Michigan Bureau of Elections about her actions.
The recall effort was initially denied in its first attempt to win approval for signature gathering last month. Organizers have resubmitted their effort, though, and it is next scheduled to go before the Board of State Canvassers on Aug. 17, according to filings organizers shared with Votebeat.
Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org.
