Why Trump Supporters Keep Avoiding Convictions on Election Charges

Night had set in and voting had ended in Michigan’s 2022 primary contest when a poll worker in Kent County was seen inserting his own USB drive into an election machine, piercing the security of the entire system, according to court records.

The actions by the poll worker, James Holkeboer, alarmed election officials. The county prosecutor swiftly charged him with felonies including falsifying records under election law and using a computer to commit a crime.

But this April, a Michigan appeals court dismissed the charges, finding that Mr. Holkeboer had not altered any records and therefore committed no crime.

The outcome in Michigan is one of many that are frustrating prosecutors and frightening election officials across the country. As the justice system tries to hold to account those who sought to disrupt or meddle with the 2020 vote and subsequent elections, it is coming up against a vexing problem: Criminal law has rarely been applied to many new types of election interference.

While federal and state courts rebuffed a legal onslaught from former President Donald J. Trump and his allies immediately after the 2020 contest, rejecting almost all of the 65 lawsuits they filed, the prosecution of people who took more direct action to intervene in elections has been more halting.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that federal prosecutors had improperly used an obstruction law to prosecute about 350 people involved in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.