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State Capitol in Lansing
Update, 8:04 p.m. Tuesday: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office terminated a controversial contract with a Democratic political consultant's Grand Rapids firm to manage a data-collection project for COVID-19 contact tracing, Crain's Detroit Business reports.
The consultant planned to use a software company that has been a vendor for Whitmer's re-election campaign, which prompted criticism from Republicans.
Original post, Tuesday afternoon:
It's easy to stir up political controversy these days.
The latest: Republicans voice concern that Michigan hired a company with connections to dozens of Democratic candidates to manage data from thousands of people contacted through the state's coronavirus contact-tracing project, The Detroit News reports.
Every Action VAN, a voter-contact platform, will help track information and contacts and organize phone banking related to coronavirus research and response, Beth LeBlanc writes. EveryAction is contracted with the state through a third party called Great Lakes Community Engagement, a political campaign specialist.
Contact tracing consists of contacting people who have been exposed to someone with the virus and checking to see if they have symptoms.
“In addition to the fact that a partisan company should not be handling a public health crisis, the Michigan Republican Party is extremely concerned with how this data will be used,” Laura Cox, chairwoman for the Michigan Republican Party, tells the paper. “The fact that there is now the possibility that it will be utilized for partisan ends is deeply troubling.”
A state spokeperson told Michigan Information & Research Service that the state has "a strict data use agreement that only allows the data collected to be used for this contact-tracing project."
