Michigan official pleads no contest in 2020 ballot sabotage case
Flint, MI, Clerk Kathy Funk broke a ballot box seal to avoid a recount in her race
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A woman who was a public official in a Flint-area community admitted Wednesday that she broke a seal on a ballot box to ensure that votes could not be recounted in her 2020 race, prosecutors said.
Kathy Funk, 59, pleaded no contest to misconduct in office, a felony, under an agreement that includes no time in jail.
Funk, a Democrat, was the Flint Township clerk in 2020 with responsibility over elections. She was accused of sabotaging a ballot box after the August primary that year, an act that would make those ballots ineligible for a recount.
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Funk had won the race by just 79 votes out of about 5,300. A recount was not conducted.
Former Flint Township, Michigan, Clerk Kathy Funk pleaded no contest to charges stemming from a 2020 ballot sabotage case. (Brice Tucker/The Flint Journal via AP)
Election officials who "undermine the very foundation of our democracy and will be held accountable," Attorney General Dana Nessel said.
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Funk quit her township post in 2021 for a bigger job as elections supervisor for Genesee County. She was dismissed last year.
After the August 2020 election, Funk contacted state police to report a break-in at Flint Township Hall and that a seal on a ballot cannister had been damaged, the Flint Journal reported, quoting the police report.
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Manya Triplett, who narrowly lost that race, now is the township clerk.