More than three weeks after the election took place and a week after the Trump campaign called off its own lawsuit in the state, two Republican-led lawsuits seek to undermine Michigan’s decisive vote for presidential candidate Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.
The first, filed directly with the Michigan Supreme Court as a petition for extraordinary writs & declaratory relief, comes from Angelic Johnson and Linda Lee Tarver, both members of Black Voices for Trump represented by the conservative Thomas More Society.
They sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Board of State Canvassers Chair Jeanette Bradshaw, alleging a wide range of improprieties.
Much of the lawsuit re-hashes claims made by the Trump campaign in Michigan lawsuits that have failed. The largest block of votes they question is an estimated 355,392 “unsolicited ballots” they allege are improper.
“In addition to improperly flooding the 2020 general election with absentee ballots by employing an unlawful mass mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot application requests. The expert analysis shows that that Secretary of State also sent unsolicited ballots,” the lawsuit claims.
Benson did mail absentee ballot applications, but not ballots, to voters. It is local clerks, and not the Secretary of State, who mail absentee ballots when they are requested. Plaintiffs argue Benson’s mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot applications was also illegal.
The lawsuit argues the state legislature should pick the state’s electors to send to the electoral college, there should be a thorough investigation of “illegal votes” and “legal votes” by a “special master,” or for a delay in Whitmer’s sending the electoral college state to Congress.
The legislature has no role in the process of picking the state’s electors. The Board of State Canvassers certified the election results declaring Biden the winner of the presidential election in Michigan, and under Michigan election law it is the governor who officially puts the slate of electors in place.
In Michigan, the election was not close. Biden won the presidential race by 154,188 votes. That’s more than 14 times the 10,674 votes Trump won the state by in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit from six Republicans in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, alleges “massive election fraud” and asks for the election to be de-certified, or for the election to be re-certified in favor of Trump instead of Biden. It’s filed against Benson, Whitmer and the Board of State Canvassers.
An array of accusations include violation of the constitution’s equal protection clause for Republican poll observers being denied “meaningful access,” computer system glitches that “uniformly” benefitted Biden over Trump and “several other Michigan Election Code violations that caused or facilitated the counting of tens of thousands of ineligible, illegal or duplicate ballots.”
The plaintiffs are represented by a legal team including Sidney Powell, an attorney formerly affiliated with, and then disavowed by, the Trump campaign. She is best known nationally for peddling conspiracy theories.
The suits come after several others seeking to undermine or flip Michigan’s election results:
- The Trump campaign lost a state lawsuit attempting to stop votes from being counted.
- The Trump campaign and several Republicans filed a federal lawsuit that sought to stop the certification of Michigan’s election results. The results were subsequently certified.
- A federal lawsuit seeks to throw out votes from Ingham, Wayne and Washtenaw counties. The four voters behind the lawsuit dropped it shortly after filing it.
- Two poll challengers at TCF Center, Johnson and Sarah Stoddard, filed suit demanding an independent investigation, a recount or an order to void the election and hold another. That suit was also dropped.
- A judge rejected a request from two Republican poll-watchers to stop Michigan’s election results from being certified.
More on MLive:
6 reasons that allegations of Michigan election fraud defy common sense
Trump’s tweets appear to contradict Michigan legislators’ statements on voter fraud
Michigan Judge says Republicans’ claims are ‘incorrect and not credible’ in voter fraud lawsuit
The Link LonkNovember 28, 2020 at 03:56AM
https://www.mlive.com/politics/2020/11/fresh-wave-of-republican-lawsuits-seek-to-undermine-bidens-michigan-victory.html
Fresh wave of Republican lawsuits seek to undermine Biden’s Michigan victory - mlive.com
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