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Michigan Sheriff Who Investigated 2020 Election Faces Challengers

Michigan Sheriff Dar Leaf’s relentless effort to uncover voter fraud and his associations with far-right groups that has come to define him as he seeks to defeat three rivals in next week’s Republican primary, Bolts reports.  Leaf sent deputies to interrogate local election officials and tried to seize voting machines, which he claimed flipped votes from Trump to Joe Biden. His activities fit in a broader network of far-right sheriffs who responded to Trump’s lies by wanting to police elections, and who may soon double down if  the former president challenges the results of November’s elections.  Since long before the 2020 election, Leaf has been involved with the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), an ultraconservative group that promotes the belief that sheriffs have the ultimate authority to interpret and enforce the constitution within their county. This philosophy came into focus for him during the Covid-19 pandemic when, angered by lockdown orders intended to mitigate the spread of the virus, Leaf refused to enforce social distancing rules.


Leaf’s skepticism about elections and convictions about the excesses of the federal government fit in comfortably in Barry County, a deeply red and rural county just north of Kalamazoo that voted for Trump over Biden in 2020 by a two to one margin. But locally, some Republicans want to turn the page. Two of his intraparty challengers in the Aug. 6 primary have highlighted his investigation into the 2020 election as a key point of contrast. “The sheriff has propagated these lies,” says Joel Ibbotson, one of his three opponents. “I’m sick of that. I want it to end.”

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A daily report co-sponsored by Arizona State University, Criminal Justice Journalists, and the National Criminal Justice Association

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