KENT COUNTY. — The case against James Holkeboer will proceed in circuit court after a hearing Monday morning. The 68-year-old is facing two charges for allegedly copying data off a Gaines Township elections laptop in August.
Holkeboer worked the August primaries for the township, working with the electronic poll book at Ada Bible Church.
"He applied for a poll inspector position with Gaines Township a couple of days prior to the election. He went through the required training for the poll worker on the day of the election," Detective Christopher Goehring with the Kent County Sheriff's Office testified in court Monday.
On Election day, "he would verify the voters application, compared to the electronic poll book, and then he would issue a ballot, which was then given to the ballot worker."
Michael Breu, the Gaines Township Clerk, was alerted to the alleged misconduct several weeks after the August election, when another poll worker came forward to the Township's Deputy Clerk, saying she was feeling guilty with something she saw Holkeboer do.
She claimed to have seen Holkeboer pull a personal USB flash drive from his pocket and put it into an elections lap top.
Holkeboer's defense attorney acknowledged Monday that his client had copied a file from the laptop on to his personal drive.
Detective Christopher Goehring interviewed Holkeboer after the incident was reported.
Goehring claimed Monday that, “he said he wanted to get a copy of the actual record from the electronic poll book, and compare it to a FOIA-able copy that he could obtain from the clerk's office a few days later.”
'FOIA' refers to utilizing the Freedom of Information Act to request documents from government entities.
According to a police report, Holkeboer reportedly had "very little confidence in our election process".
“I questioned him, if he saw another poll worker doing what he was doing, how he would react to it,” Detective Goehring recounted Monday.
"He said that if he saw someone from his party do it, he really wouldn't question it. If he saw someone from the opposing party doing it, he would question what they're doing.”
But Holkeboer's attorney, Chip Chamberlain, argued that his client's actions did not actually break any law.
“What happened here, the prosecutor may not like, but it's not a crime,” he said.
“Maybe you should be fired and simply penalized, but it's not a violation of this statute.”
Felix Tarango with the Kent County Prosecutor's Office wasn't buying it.
"The crime is not whether he manipulated the election, but whether he had access to information that you and I can't get access to," Tarango explained after Monday's hearing wrapped up.
"He is actually held to a higher standard than you and I, because he goes through the training, he knows the process of how the system is supposed to work... But yet he, on that morning of, he decides to show up to work with his own flash drive."
The case against Holkeboer was bound over to Circuit Court Monday, meaning it will proceed.
He is expected back in court in December.
