By Zach Gorchow
Gongwer News Service
A coalition of groups and voters with Republican ties has filed suit in federal court seeking an order for state elections officials to uphold voting laws.
The plaintiffs include United Sovereign Americans, Incorporated, and the Michigan Fair Elections Institute, as well as unsuccessful 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Donna Brandenburg.
Filed last Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the lawsuit names Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Bureau of Elections, State Attorney General Dana Nessel and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. It seeks a writ of mandamus that the named defendants comply with two federal laws, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, plus the Michigan Election Law.
The plaintiffs claim errors in Michigan’s 2022 elections exceed the Help American Vote Act’s mandate of no more than one voting error out of 125,000 votes. The groups say they are not challenging the results of the 2022 elections, which were a Democratic sweep in Michigan, but rather trying to prevent legally forbidden errors.
The filing claims that United Sovereign Americans, which filed similar litigation in Pennsylvania, “uncovered overwhelming evidence of registration issues in the 2020 and 2022 elections. For 2022 in Michigan, the litigation claims more than 58 million voter registration violations among the 7,587,952 voter registrations in Michigan for the 2022 election, including 100,229 invalid addresses, 2,204 “back-dated” new registrations, among others.
“Petitioners believe and therefore aver this data shows that in 2022 the voter rolls in Michigan are not accurate and current as required by the NVRA, HAVA, and specific Michigan laws pertaining to voter registration,” the lawsuit says. “Respondents have ignored or dismissed, and continue to ignore or dismiss, these concerns without apparent meaningful review, action, or response, and furthermore Petitioners believe and therefore aver Respondents intend to administer and certify Michigan’s 2024 general election (involving both state and federal contests) under the same inaccurate and flawed conditions as that have utilized previously in conducting Michigan’s combined federal and state elections.”
The case – United Sovereign Americans v. Benson (USEDM Docket No. 24-12256) – was assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert White.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed suit in the Kalamazoo Circuit Court seeking a court order requiring Robert Froman, a member of the Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers, to certify the 2024 election results. Froman, a Republican, had told The Detroit News he would not certify the 2024 results should they unfold the same as 2020, which he falsely claimed was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
Gongwer News Service
A coalition of groups and voters with Republican ties has filed suit in federal court seeking an order for state elections officials to uphold voting laws.
The plaintiffs include United Sovereign Americans, Incorporated, and the Michigan Fair Elections Institute, as well as unsuccessful 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Donna Brandenburg.
Filed last Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the lawsuit names Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Bureau of Elections, State Attorney General Dana Nessel and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. It seeks a writ of mandamus that the named defendants comply with two federal laws, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, plus the Michigan Election Law.
The plaintiffs claim errors in Michigan’s 2022 elections exceed the Help American Vote Act’s mandate of no more than one voting error out of 125,000 votes. The groups say they are not challenging the results of the 2022 elections, which were a Democratic sweep in Michigan, but rather trying to prevent legally forbidden errors.
The filing claims that United Sovereign Americans, which filed similar litigation in Pennsylvania, “uncovered overwhelming evidence of registration issues in the 2020 and 2022 elections. For 2022 in Michigan, the litigation claims more than 58 million voter registration violations among the 7,587,952 voter registrations in Michigan for the 2022 election, including 100,229 invalid addresses, 2,204 “back-dated” new registrations, among others.
“Petitioners believe and therefore aver this data shows that in 2022 the voter rolls in Michigan are not accurate and current as required by the NVRA, HAVA, and specific Michigan laws pertaining to voter registration,” the lawsuit says. “Respondents have ignored or dismissed, and continue to ignore or dismiss, these concerns without apparent meaningful review, action, or response, and furthermore Petitioners believe and therefore aver Respondents intend to administer and certify Michigan’s 2024 general election (involving both state and federal contests) under the same inaccurate and flawed conditions as that have utilized previously in conducting Michigan’s combined federal and state elections.”
The case – United Sovereign Americans v. Benson (USEDM Docket No. 24-12256) – was assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert White.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed suit in the Kalamazoo Circuit Court seeking a court order requiring Robert Froman, a member of the Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers, to certify the 2024 election results. Froman, a Republican, had told The Detroit News he would not certify the 2024 results should they unfold the same as 2020, which he falsely claimed was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
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