An appeals court dismissed charges against a Michigan election worker who put a USB flash drive into an electronic poll book and downloaded the names of voters at the close of a primary election in 2022.

The court’s conclusion: James Holkeboer’s conduct was improper but not a crime.

He was charged with election fraud. But Holkeboer’s lawyers pointed out that the state law used by prosecutors only bars acts that change the election record.

CALIFORNIA SUES BEACH CITY OVER VOTER ID LAW BACKED BY MAJORITY OF RESIDENTS

“The prosecution had to demonstrate that Holkeboer fraudulently removed or secreted the election list of voters such that the information was no longer available or altered,” the court said in a 3-0 opinion Thursday.

“Here, no evidence was presented that election information was altered or made unavailable” to local election officials, the court said.

Holkeboer’s acts did not affect the results of the 2022 primary election. He was working at a polling place in Kent County’s Gaines Township, south of Grand Rapids, for the first time.

Holkeboer, a Republican, told investigators that he downloaded information about voters because he wanted to compare it to lists he was seeking under a separate public records request, according to a summary of the case.

Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons, who oversees elections, said she’s in favor of an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

“This breach of public trust must be addressed,” she said.

There are so many billboards on each side of the 10 Freeway through the Coachella Valley that they bleed into one another like a deck of cards being shuffled. They come at you so fast that you begin to think the headliner this weekend at the Coachella festival is attorney Jacob Emrani.

Even in this cluttered landscape, two billboards featuring Desert Community College District Board trustee Bea Gonzalez stand out.

They’re at opposite ends of the valley — one near Fantasy Spring Resort Casino in Indio, another just east of the Indian Canyon Drive exit in Palm Springs — and feature the same photo of the spiky-haired, bespectacled trustee.

“Bea Gonzalez. Shame on you for voting against COD [College of the Desert] students!” the billboards blare against an orange background. Below that is the name of the group that funds them, Promises Made Promises Broken.

The hundreds of thousands of concertgoers who’ll pass by most likely won’t give the billboards a second thought. But they tell a story of a political brawl that has consumed the Coachella Valley.

Supporters say a long-planned College of the Desert campus in downtown Palm Springs, which is expected to break ground this year, will bring prestige and new programs such as hospitality, engineering and film to an area that needs it. Opponents such as Gonzalez say that the estimated $400-million cost is exorbitant and that the funds should be spread across underserved areas of the Coachella Valley.

When Gonzalez beat a two-term incumbent in a 2020 election, she joined two other trustees in trying to limit the scope of the Palm Springs project, if not scuttling it altogether.

Soon came the attacks: An unsuccessful 2021 push for a faculty vote of no confidence against Gonzalez and her trustee allies. A 2022 election that saw former college president and Gonzalez critic Joel Kinnamon join the board and flip the majority to his favor. A threatened recall that never materialized. Whispers that Gonzalez is a puppet of Latino politicians based in the eastern portion of the Coachella Valley who have increasingly clashed over resources with pols in the wealthier, whiter western communities.

And, of course, there are the billboards, which have shifted up and down the 10 since the beginning of 2023. They’ve become such a part of the region’s life that Gonzalez recently told me she’s used to having strangers stare at her before asking if she’s that woman.

“I have to laugh,” the 55-year-old said as we enjoyed bowls of split pea soup at a diner in Desert Hot Springs, “because what else can I do?”

The brawl has grown so contentious that the city of Palm Springs sued College of the Desert in 2022 for failing to turn over documents related to land use decisions, in alleged violation of the California Public Records Act. Kinnamon got into a physical altercation in January with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1167 President Joe Duffle, a Gonzalez ally, with each accusing the other of starting the fight.

Kinnamon didn’t respond to repeated requests for an interview. Meanwhile, Promises Made Promises Broken — which the Desert Sun, the local newspaper, has described as “worrisome” for its refusal to disclose its members or donors — has flanked its anti-Gonzalez billboards with mailers and video ads as the group seeks to defeat her at the ballot box in November.

“If you know an election is coming, the smart thing to do is to create a negative perception far in advance,” Promises Made Promises Broken spokesperson Bruce Hoban said. “This Bea thing with ‘No, no, no, no, no’ at every trustee meeting is nerve-racking. It’s just relentless.”

Gonzalez is warm and self-effacing, with a good laugh. She said of the long campaign against her: “I think [opponents] are scratching their heads and thinking, ‘OK, we’re attacking her. We’re shaming her, and she won’t stop.’ But I really think these people have no clue the investment that I made into my community for years.”

Born and raised in Indio, Gonzalez is a College of the Desert alumna and has worked as an administrator for the Coachella Valley Unified School District for nearly 30 years. A longtime community activist, she ran for the community college district board in 2020 after hearing complaints from former students about shoddy facilities and a lack of classes and majors.

“You and I know,” Gonzalez said, “that if you want to change something, you have to be inside. And that there’s no other way.”

When she assumed office, the mother of two went through staff reports on the long-proposed new campus project. It was originally planned for northern Palm Springs, but Kinnamon announced in 2014 that the district wanted to take over a long-abandoned mall downtown and build there. Two years later, voters passed a $577-million bond to help fund that project and other improvements for existing facilities.

Gonzalez said that she’s not opposed to a new campus in principle but that putting it in Palm Springs makes no sense since there’s already a smaller facility there, and far more students reside in cities such as Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs, which she represents.

“And so to me, I was, like, ‘Wait a minute, what is going on here?’ And all of a sudden, there was this outrage from the entire West Valley, and all these attacks started — and I mean, they went all in. Every time I would vote no on a contract or ask a lot of questions — boom! Billboard No. 1. Boom! Billboard No. 2.”

She smiled. “I figure by now, I should have at least 20.”

Hoban, the Promises Made Promises Broken spokesperson, said he didn’t “know anything about College of the Desert, anything about community college” until attending a breakfast meeting in 2021 and hearing Gonzalez criticize the Palm Springs project, then finding out the board was going to cancel a proposed Cathedral City campus.

“All the plans that had been promised for 17 years were getting heavily modified or canceled and we said, ‘Wait a second. Why isn’t anything being built in the West Valley?’”

As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Promises Made Promises Broken doesn’t need to disclose its members or how it spends its money. Paperwork filed with the California secretary of state lists its officers as Palm Springs restaurateur John Shay, jeweler Theresa Applegate and Cary Davidson, a Los Angeles-based attorney and trustee at Claremont McKenna College.

An email to them requesting an interview was instead returned by Hoban, who co-chaired the campaign that defeated a 2018 measure that sought to ban short-term rentals in Palm Springs of single-family homes. Asked who else belongs to Promises Made Promises Broken, Hoban said it’s “made up of people who have always been very involved in political issues and causes, so we know our way around.”

He wouldn’t disclose how much the group spends on billboards, although he claimed the going rate in the Coachella Valley for one billboard was $500 to $4,000 a month. Whatever the amount, he said his group is “100% completely” satisfied with their investment.

“People see them, and people will talk to us, and say, ‘I didn’t realize this problem with Bea Gonzalez,’” Hoban said.

Gonzalez acknowledged that she was angry when the billboards first went up, but she has made her peace with them.

“I’m getting this because I’m doing my due diligence — I ask these questions because I want that clarity,” she said. “And when the attacks started, it just made me even more curious.”

She pulled out a letter from a manila folder that she sent to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office asking that he investigate the use of College of the Desert’s bond money over the last 20 years.

“How can I vote yes, if a yes vote would be simply because of the intimidation? I can’t do that,” Gonzalez said.

A spokesperson with Bonta’s office said it’s “unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, a potential or ongoing investigation.”

We finished our breakfast, then drove toward the 10 to see her billboard near Indian Canyon Drive. We parked on the freeway divider and admired it from afar as traffic sped by just feet away. I told her I vaguely remembered seeing the low-slung orange thing last summer.

Gonzalez waved at the billboard, as if to say hi. Then, she cracked up.

“Well, at least they used a good photo of me!”

Former first lady Melania Trump stressed the importance of unifying the nation, telling Fox News Digital that “equality” needs to be the “everyday experience of every American.” 

The former first lady is expected to headline an event at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, hosted by the Log Cabin Republicans — a pro-LGBT group. The event will focus on the group’s “Road to Victory,” a voter-turnout program planned for gay voters in swing states. 

MELANIA TRUMP RETURNS TO CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH PRO-LGBT REPUBLICAN EVENT APPEARANCE: REPORT

“We must unite in our effort to establish a society where equality is the everyday experience of every American,” the former first lady told Fox News Digital. “Individual freedom provides a unifying set of principles, and ultimately establishes our American way.” 

“Together, we must nourish and safeguard the seeds of liberty,” she continued. “Because, when successful, America blossoms into a magnificent place where everyone can practice their beliefs, share new ideas, and express individualism — this is when we are our best.” 

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The former first lady is working alongside former Amb. Ric Grenell for the event. Grenell, who served during the Trump administration as the ambassador to Germany and the acting director of national intelligence, was the first openly gay member of the presidential Cabinet in U.S. history. However, Grenell said that “means absolutely nothing in terms of special treatment.” 

“It simply means that the American dream is alive and well — if you work hard and have a little bit of luck and God’s grace, you can do anything you want in America regardless of your skin color, socio-economic situation, or sexual orientation,” Grenell told Fox News Digital. “We want what every American wants, to be treated equally not differently.” 

Grenell told Fox News Digital that the Republican Party has grown “increasingly welcoming of gay conservatives over the last 20 years.” 

“But we made the most progress when Donald Trump and Melania Trump moved into the White House,” Grenell told Fox News Digital. 

Grenell said that, “Gays and lesbians are no longer reflexively leftist.” 

“They realize they have incredible liberties in America and that they are not opposed,” he explained, noting there are more than 80 Log Cabin chapters across the country that have seen an “explosion of membership.”

“The gay left continues to try and convince America’s gays and lesbians that they don’t have personal freedoms — it’s absurd,” Grenell said.

He added, “Gays and lesbians around the world are literally dying to come to America. We live in the greatest country in the world and Log Cabin members are proud to say it.” 

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Grenell told Fox News Digital that the 2024 election is “about the elites in D.C. versus the rest of America.” He told Fox News Digital that the media and Democrats are “shamelessly defining support for trans kids as a litmus test for supporting gay rights, and it infuriates gay conservatives.” 

As for unity, Grenell said it is Democrats and far-left activists who are to blame for separating Americans. 

Former first lady Melania Trump receives the Lincoln Award at the Log Cabin Republicans event at Mar-a-Lago in November 2021.

“Gay, Inc, and the far-Left activists who control Gay, Inc are spending millions of dollars to separate gays in America,” Grenell said. “They tell young people they must step away from the rest of society because they are oppressed in America. They work hard to make gays angry, weird, separated, and fringe. They want separate flags, pronouns, bakeries, and bathrooms. It’s crazy.” 

Grenell said the left “won’t admit that the equality fight is largely over in America but just beginning in the 69 countries around the world that criminalize gays.” 

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“But gay conservatives know this is the greatest country in the world to be who you are — We are welcomed in every community,” he said. “We aren’t oppressed in America.” 

The former first lady told Fox News Digital that the Log Cabin Republicans’ overarching mission is “important” and “rooted in respect.” 

“Based on this central value, people thrive and exist together in a world where all are honored and celebrated,” she said.   

The former first lady was given the Lincoln Award at a Log Cabin event at Mar-a-Lago in 2021. 

Former first lady Melania Trump and former Amb. Ric Grenell at the Log Cabin Republicans event in November 2021.

Meanwhile, Fox News Digital asked the former first lady what her plans would be for a second term in the White House, should her husband, former President Trump, win the 2024 election. 

“The safety and well-being of American families remains my top priority,” she told Fox News Digital. “Our children are our future leaders, tomorrow’s innovators.” 

She told Fox News Digital that it is “essential we provide the highest level of care to our next generation; to insure they not only thrive but reach their full potential.” 

“In turn, our nation will sustain for generations,” she said. 

During her time as first lady, Trump hosted virtual roundtables on foster care as part of her “Be Best” initiative, and focused on strengthening the child welfare system. She worked with members of Congress on legislation that secured funding for grants awarded to youth and young adults currently or formerly in foster care to help pay for college, career school or training. The bill ultimately was signed by then-President Trump in December 2020.

Since leaving the White House, the former first lady has also created special edition Non-Fungible Tokens. A portion of those proceeds went toward her initiative “Fostering the Future” to secure educational opportunities and scholarships for children in the foster care community.