Accused Trump 'false elector' back in control of town's ballots after charges cleared

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Stan Grot is once again in charge of Shelby Township’s elections.

Grot, the Shelby Township Clerk, was one of 16 people charged with a number of felonies connected to their role as so-called “false electors” for President Donald Trump in 2020. As a result, the state stripped Grot of his ability to run the community’s elections in 2023.

Those charges — against Grot and the others accused — were dropped in September. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel last month announced she wouldn’t appeal the dismissal of charges, after determining that her chances of success on appeal were limited.

And now, the Michigan Department of State confirms Grot is once again leading elections in his Macomb County community. The state notified Grot of the change in January, according to spokesperson Angela Benander.

The reinstatement came three years after Director of Elections Jonathan Brater wrote in a letter that Grot was to stop administering elections “to ensure public trust and confidence in the integrity and security of elections.” His deputy, an unelected official named Craig Cowper, was tasked with the work in his absence.

Grot did not respond to requests for comment from Votebeat. He had previously described the experience of facing charges as “pure hell” and said he “did nothing wrong.” Elections are a “very small” part of the job, he told The Detroit News in 2024.

He and his attorney maintained his innocence. They said party officials told Grot the document he signed — which falsely certified the state’s electoral votes for Trump — was a contingency, signed in case President Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan in 2020 was overturned. Biden ultimately won the state by more than 150,000 votes.

Grot has been the clerk in Shelby Township since 2012, and has often run unopposed by Democrats in the city of about 80,000. He won re-election multiple times, including in 2024, during the time he was barred from running elections.

Nessel has maintained that the slate of “false electors” committed crimes including election law forgery and several counts of conspiracy, going so far as to release a 110-page report laying out the argument. The charges against Grot and the others were dismissed when a judge ruled last year that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven that the people in question had criminal intent.

“The dismissal of the false slate charges does not change the facts, and it does not change history,” Nessel’s report read. “What Michigan’s false slate did was wrong.”

Shelby Township’s next election is in August.

Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.