The Ingham County clerk’s office is relying on thousands of paper records after IT personnel accidentally deleted electronic data late last month.
WKAR has learned that on May 25, technicians deleted expired electronic records in the Register of Deeds' computer system. Later they discovered the operation took out more than 130,000 records maintained by county clerk Mike Bryanton. Those include campaign finance data, births, deaths and weapons permits.
Bryanton downplays the impact on daily county business.
“If a citizen comes in and wants a certified copy of a birth, death, marriage record, they will be able to walk out of the office with that document," he says. "For the time being, it might take a little bit longer because we have to do it the old way before we got so reliant on technology.”
Bryanton says some operations have been tightened up since the incident. He expects a review of county data storage procedures.