KENT COUNTY, Mich. — After an election worker was charged with election fraud on Wednesday, a local woman who voted at the precinct in question is furious her information was compromised.
"I was mad, really mad," says Cindy Lage.
Lage lives within walking distance of the Ada Bible Church on 68th Street, Gaines Township's precinct eight polling place and her ideal voting location.
Now, she's not so sure.
"It just is a violation of all of us, it just makes me not want to go vote at all," says Lage. "It just, it angers me inside."
After the polls closed the day Lage voted, Kent County Sheriff Michelle Lajoye-Young says that's when election worker James Holkeboer approached one of the machines.
"That witness saw this gentleman put the device in the voting machine, and then take the device with him when he left," says Lajoye-Young.
The witness reported what they saw a couple of weeks later. Wednesday's charges, the culmination of a long investigation.
"We are very solid that this gentleman committed a crime on that day," says the sheriff.
After the news broke, Lage says anger crept in, furious her private information could have been compromised.
"Shame on you, you know," says Lage. "What were you thinking? You know, what was on your mind to grab all this information?"
Lajoye-Young says cases like this are rare, saying she's never covered one like it before.
"I was surprised, you don't expect it," she says. "That somebody would try to violate their duty, because this person was sworn to take on this duty to protect this right for his fellow citizens who are trying to carry out their civic duty."
But she assures voters like Lage she'll do everything she can to restore election integrity.
"I think it's really important that we follow through, and that we bring this to charges and bring it to fruition," says Lajoye-Young. "Because I think it is important for people to know that we take this seriously. That not only is their safety important to us, but their rights are important to us."
Holkeboer is charged with two felonies, falsifying records and using a computer to commit a crime, carrying potential sentences of several years in prison.
He declined to speak with us when approached at his home Wednesday evening.
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