Livingston, and 17 Other MI Counties, Recognized for Responsiveness to Citizen Requests for Election Data
- Mar 25
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 28
FOR RELEASE
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Contact:
Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor
817.528.9471
(Stockbridge, Mich.) — Livingston County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley was presented an award for election data request responsiveness on Monday, March 24, 6:00 p.m., at the full Board of Commissioners meeting in Howell, Michigan. Video link to the presentation Here.
Hundley received Michigan Fair Elections Institute’s (MFEI) Sunlight Award. She is one of only 18 Michigan clerks who responded in five or fewer business days to a FOIA request for election data from the November 2024 general election. Only 22% of Michigan’s 83 county clerks provided the information that quickly.
Patrice Johnson, founder and chair of MFEI, attended the meeting and facilitated presentation of the award.
“We call it the Sunlight Award because sunlight is often called the best disinfectant,” Johnson explained. United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis D. Brandeis popularized the idea in a Harper’s Weekly article calling for the need to expose corrupt practices in the banking industry. He wrote, ‘Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient Policeman.’”
Johnson went on to praise Hundley specifically, “Livingston County has one of the best clerks in the state. Elizabeth Hundley has a leadership reputation in a profession in which the challenges keep increasing.”
According to the inscription, the award is presented to clerks “in recognition of your outstanding dedication and exemplary service in responding to citizens’ requests for information about elections with speed, accuracy, and professionalism. Your commitment to transparency and efficiency strengthens public trust in the democratic process and upholds the highest standards of civic duty.”
According to Johnson, “Our laws provide for citizen inquiry into the results of our elections. It is a natural check against corruption. But it can only work when election officials provide the information, as Elizabeth Hundley and 17 of her peers did.”
Award Qualifications
Following the November 24 General Election, citizen analysts auditing the election data were unable to get normally available state-wide ballot information from the Secretary of State’s office. State officials claimed not all the counties had uploaded the data.
As a workaround, the volunteer analysts filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the election data from each of Michigan’s 83 counties. They also kept careful records of how and when the counties responded. The volunteers analyzed the county responses and developed a ranking of how well Michigan counties responded to their citizen request for publicly available election data.
Tim Mauro-Vetter, spokesperson for the data volunteers, further explained the nature of the request. “It wasn’t for copies or for physical pieces of paper. This election information is in the form of a data set in a spreadsheet that can be transmitted electronically, so it is a request that does generate a task, but it isn’t especially labor intensive.”
Nevertheless, some counties outright denied the request, some ignored it, others charged exorbitant fees, and some took weeks to respond.
Livingston and 17 other counties were willing to provide the data, responded within five business days, and did not charge a fee.
“We will be presenting awards to the other 17 county clerks as well, but we are kicking things off in Livingston County at the invitation of Commissioner Wes Nakagiri,” Johnson said.
Nakagiri expressed his enthusiasm, “Clerk Hundley excels at providing Livingston County citizens with fair and transparent elections. She is truly deserving of this recognition."
Michigan Fair Elections Institute will soon be publishing its first annual ranking of the Michigan counties with the cleanest voter rolls. “Polling shows Americans overwhelmingly want clean voter rolls. MFEI wants to make sure we draw attention to the counties and the clerks who are doing a great job,” Johnson added.
Michigan Fair Elections Institute is an educational nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to restoring fair and honest elections through education, local citizen participation, and litigation. It operates local task forces in approximately half of Michigan’s 83 counties.
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