In 2012, while acting as a poll challenger for the Republican Party in Pontiac, MI, I witnessed multiple election violations and reported them to the Republican Party. I was physically threatened by the elections supervisor at the precinct where I was assigned, for “getting to close” to the workers who were overseeing the voter rolls, (the books that included the names of registered voters in the district). I was repeatedly warned by the elections supervisor that I was making her workers “uncomfortable.” What made me uncomfortable, was watching a elections supervisor, who allowed an almost incoherent voter to use a pill bottle with her name on the label, as a form of identification. What made me uncomfortable, was being ignored by the elections supervisor multiple times when I demanded a ballot was designated as a “provisional” ballot. Several times, the voter’s name couldn’t be found on the voter rolls or the voter wanted to use an illegitimate form of identification, like a pill bottle, for instance.

The City Clerk in Pontiac was none other than Sherikia Hawkins.

I went back to the same polling place two more times after the 2012 election, and each time, I found more and more shenanigans that were taking place inside the gym of a Salvation Army building in Pontiac, MI. The last time I was a poll challenger in the Pontiac, MI precinct, the city clerk, Sherikia Hawkins called in an Oakland County Sheriff who threatened me for having too many poll challengers on the floor behind the workers, while the city clerk stood next to him and smirked. I explained to the sheriff that he should understand the law before threatening me, and he left. Shortly afterward, the clerk apologized and said she was mistaken about me not being allowed to have another poll challenger next to me while overseeing the process. The next day, an article appeared in the Oakland Press about how the police had to be called on a Republican poll challenger for intimidating voters. None of it was true; it was all staged for the media. The city clerk knew exactly what she was doing when she called the sheriff, who reprimanded me and then left the precinct. It was a setup.

It’s too bad the former Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, who we gave detailed reports of issues we encountered in multiple Pontiac elections, wasn’t willing to look into the allegations of voter fraud against Pontiac polls workers and the former Pontiac City Clerk Sherikia Hawkins.