State Representative Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township) issued the following statement regarding his delivery of a subpoena to the Secretary of State’s office on Tuesday:

“Today, I officially issued a subpoena to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office for election training materials that they have refused to hand over to me or any other member of the Legislature for the past five months. The department has been unable to provide a compelling reason for why they are unwilling to give us, the people’s elected representatives, access to materials that are available to every single locally elected clerk in the state of Michigan and their respective staffs.

“For us as lawmakers to be able to properly legislate on election matters, it is imperative that we know how the executive branch and our local governing officials are conducting our elections. Our tasks as legislators often include crafting election policy, providing oversight on governing bodies within the other co-equal branches like the Secretary of State, and working to maintain a harmonious operation between our state and local governments.

“These tasks require a nuanced understanding of how the Secretary of State operates, including how they train our clerks. The Secretary of State’s office either does not comprehend this fact or is willfully disregarding it in an effort to disguise certain practices they know both the public and their representatives will find objectionable. Either way, their disregard for the people throughout this process has been incredibly disappointing. My decision to subpoena them was done in the name of transparency and accountability to the people of Michigan.”