Originally published in Macomb Daily. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.
“Mike Bishop, a former Michigan congressman and board member of a group calling itself the Democracy Defense Project, said Macomb County is tops among the leading counties in Michigan in safeguarding and maintaining trust in elections.
Bishop visited Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini and his election staff Friday to applaud their efforts in recent years to improve transparency and ensure accuracy of elections in light of the loss of some trust over the past several years.
Bishop cited Macomb and Kent counties as achieving the most in Michigan to improve and promote election integrity. He also complimented clerks in several other of the state’s most populous counties in making strides to ensure safe and secure elections to improve public trust, including Wayne, Oakland, Livingston and Ingham.
“Transparency, doing our homework, making sure we do things right,” Forlini said of the reason for the trust in elections in the county.
Since Forlini took office, the Elections Division of the Clerk’s Office:
— Commissioned a forensic audit of the election server following the elections in 2020 and 2021
— Turned off the modems that sent tabulator election results through the internet.
— Conducted its first countywide election-worker training of some 700 people to provide staffing for local community clerks.
— Conducted its first-ever Campaign Finance Electronic Filing System.
— Added watermarks to paper ballots before the 2024 presidential election.
The DDP, a national bipartisan organization formed in 2024, is composed of Democratic and Republican leaders who are working to defend the transparency, safety, security and validity of the nation’s electoral system, DDP officials said. Board members of the Michigan chapter include former Govs. John Engler, a Republican, and Jim Blanchard, a Democrat, as well as former Democratic Lt. Gov. John Cherry.
“Michigan’s election system has shown time and again that it is safe and secure and we encourage all eligible voters to cast their ballots in the upcoming primary,” said Bishop, a Republican who also served as majority leader in the state Senate. “County and local clerks are doing amazing work making sure that our elections are safe, secure and accurate. Michigan voters can feel confident about their state’s election system and know that every ballot cast in the Aug. 5 primary will be counted. ”
Bishop said maintaining trust in elections is critical to the nation’s constitutional Republic, which he called a “delicate form” of “self governance.”
“We have to do whatever we can as Americans, as citizens, as practitioners in this field to ensure the public knows the system is the best in the world, the safest in the world and our country needs it to exist,” he said.
He said the top voting issue among Americans is ensuring only citizens vote.
The DDP released a poll of 800 registered voters in June that showed nearly nine in 10 Michigan voters trust their local elections, and nearly 72% of voters say they are satisfied with the condition of Michigan elections. The poll showed that more than 78% of voters are confident in the fairness and accuracy of the 2026 elections, with high confidence across political affiliations – including Republicans, Democrats and independents. The survey revealed that more than 82.1% say voters – not legislators and politicians – should have the final say in setting Michigan’s election laws.
Bishop reviewed how Michigan has implemented safety, security and accuracy measures in the law, including:
— Requiring voters to present identification before casting a ballot in-person or if they forget their ID, requiring them to sign a legal affidavit attesting to who they are.
— Mandating every voting machine to be tested prior to every election to ensure the machine is operating correctly and reporting correct results.
— Ensuring all absentee ballot drop boxes be monitored by video and that authorized clerk personnel collect any ballots daily.
— Requiring that the signature on absentee ballots matches the signature in the official voting book before being counted.
— Prohibiting ballots from being counted if they are postmarked after Election Day, unless they are military or overseas ballots.
— Allowing Republican, Democratic and other voter interest groups to assign credentialed individuals to each polling location and absentee counting board to monitor the voting process and challenge any irregularities…”
Published: Aug 3, 2025
