Sheryl Guy: From County Clerk to Election Integrity Advocate
Sheryl Guy never imagined she would find herself at the center of a national political controversy.
“I was appalled,” she expressed. “I felt betrayed and used.”
At 63, Guy serves as the Antrim County clerk in northwest Michigan. After a 45-year career in various county roles, she planned to retire after the 2024 election. However, her concerns about a potential successor who denies the legitimacy of the 2020 election compelled her to reconsider her retirement. The race for the county’s top election official has since morphed into a broader struggle over trust in the American political system amidst an increasingly polarized electorate. According to States United Action, an advocacy organization, 26 election deniers currently hold statewide office across 19 states, and 172 members of Congress also fall into this category. The group is monitoring 14 election deniers in this year’s statewide races and 180 congressional candidates.
The false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump has increasingly infiltrated local elections.
Antrim County, with its population of about 25,000, has become a focal point in this discussion. Located about an hour north of Traverse City, the county is known for its picturesque landscapes. However, the aftermath of the 2020 election was anything but tranquil.
Typically a reliable stronghold for Trump, Antrim County witnessed an astonishing result on election night: Joe Biden appeared to be winning, according to unofficial tallies. Guy recalled that she and her staff worked tirelessly through the night. It wasn’t until a concerned colleague texted her while she was at a McDonald’s drive-thru that she realized something might be amiss. The text read, “Things don’t look right.” “I thought, how could that be? We need to get to the bottom of this,” she said. “It was horrifying.”
The problem stemmed from last-minute changes to the ballot that resulted in a tabulation error, causing candidate vote totals to land in incorrect columns. Guy and her team identified and corrected the mistake within days, but the damage had already been done.
Trump and his supporters seized on the temporary miscount, asserting that “in one Michigan county alone, 6,000 votes were switched from Trump to Biden,” as he claimed on January 6.
Guy, a Republican who voted for Trump in the past but plans to break that pattern in the upcoming election, faced accusations of election rigging. “I believe Trump aimed to use Antrim County to highlight supposed issues in other jurisdictions,” she said.
Following the controversy, Guy and her staff received death threats, reinforcing her decision to step down as county clerk after the 2024 election, a position she has held for 12 years.
However, when a businesswoman named Victoria Bishop won a crowded Republican primary—virtually guaranteeing her victory in November—Guy felt compelled to act. She views Bishop as an election denier, prompting her to mount a write-in campaign. “I have integrity,” Guy stated. “I was born and raised here; this is my town, and after the 2020 election, I felt that horrible error I owned was my legacy.”
Guy admits to making significant mistakes in 2020 but argues that the experience has led to important changes. “It was a hard lesson to learn. It was agonizing, and we’ve implemented even more safeguards since then,” she noted.
Bishop’s campaign has declined to comment on the matter. In a letter to a local newspaper, she stated her intention to restore election integrity in Antrim County, claiming, “I believe we still have dead people and people who no longer live in Antrim County on our Qualified Voter Files.” On a podcast, her husband described the county as “the most corrupt county when it comes to elections in Michigan.”
Tom Stillings, a former chair of the county’s Republican Party, supports Bishop and continues to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election. “I think there was a lot of bad stuff that did go on,” Stillings remarked. “Was it enough to change the outcome? We’ll never know.”
He downplays the numerous failed lawsuits from the Trump campaign or a 2022 report by conservative legal experts debunking widespread voter fraud claims. “As a citizen, I have the right to be skeptical,” he said. “And I am skeptical.”
For Sheryl Guy, such skepticism threatens the very foundation of U.S. democracy.
“It’s the way of the world,” she remarked. “Everyone has a voice, and it doesn’t matter whether what they say is true or false. Facts don’t matter to these people.”
Now, in this small Michigan county, the integrity of elections has become a pivotal issue in the upcoming election.
“I hope Trump shows respect to the voters across the country,” Guy said. “And stays out of my county.”
