Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop illegally purged voter registrations outside her statutory authority

On April 14, 2026, the Michigan Bureau of Elections sent a letter to Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop stating she had made voter-registration changes that fell outside the scope of her statutory authority and failed to comply with state election law. The bureau's review of the state's Qualified Voter File (QVF), prompted by complaints from voters and local clerks, found that Bishop had sent confirmation and cancellation notices to voters who had missed only one or two elections and had changed those voters' statuses in the QVF to "Cancel" or "Reject." Michigan law is explicit that a clerk may not cancel a voter's registration solely because the voter missed one or two elections, and that only municipal — city and township — clerks, not county clerks, may maintain the QVF or send such notices. The letter, signed by Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater, said Bishop acted without any agreement or delegation of authority from the affected local jurisdictions and asked her to explain her actions and identify every voter affected.

Bishop, a Republican first elected Antrim County clerk in 2024 on a platform of "cleaning up" the county's voter rolls, took office in 2025 and is aligned with the wing of the party that falsely claims the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump; her husband, radio host Randy "Trucker Randy" Bishop, has made similar claims. Antrim County was previously at the center of 2020 election-conspiracy claims after a tabulator error briefly and erroneously showed Joe Biden winning the heavily Republican county, before the mistake was corrected. The bureau's letter warned that failing to follow a lawful state instruction can carry criminal misdemeanor liability and could lead to Bishop losing her election-administration duties.

Updates

2026-05-01 — Bureau formally ordered Bishop to stop, warned of possible criminal charges [3, 4]

The Michigan Bureau of Elections formally demanded Bishop cease changing or canceling voter registrations, warning she could face criminal charges and lose her election-administration authority if she continued; Director Brater wrote that Bishop does "not have unlimited authority to conduct any action you see fit simply because you were elected to office."

2026-05-28 — State Police opened investigation after Bishop's husband was found with unsupervised computer access [5, 6]

The Michigan State Police opened an investigation after a county maintenance worker reported seeing Bishop's husband alone in a secure area of the clerk's office using her computer, which has access to the Qualified Voter File; the report was referred to prosecutors for review.

2026-06-12 — State suspended Bishop's access to the Qualified Voter File [7, 9]

The Bureau of Elections revoked Bishop's QVF access, with Brater writing that the bureau's review of her QVF activity confirmed unauthorized changes and that access would remain suspended until she completed security training and demonstrated she would comply with the law.

2026-07-06 — Recall petition filed against Bishop [8, 9]

Antrim County resident Ashley Areeda filed a petition with the Michigan Board of State Canvassers to recall Bishop, citing the Bureau of Elections' suspension of her QVF access as grounds.