Capitol News

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in support of continuing investigations into election fraud in Wayne County. The court denied a contest of the decision by a lower court. The case was presided by two justices, Brian K. Zahra and Stephen Markman.

A court has denied the appeal of a lawsuit in Michigan that sought to question the vote results in Wayne County.

The lawsuit, brought by two Wayne County voters, sought to block the certification of votes so an audit could be done.

While the request to conduct an audit before certification was denied, the court did state in an order issued Nov. 23 that there was “troubling and serious allegations of fraud and irregularities.” In addition, the court ruled that the plaintiffs presented evidence to support their allegations. 

“Plaintiffs’ affidavits present evidence to substantiate their allegations, which include claims of ballots being counted from voters whose names are not contained in the appropriate poll books, instructions being given to disobey election laws and regulations, the questionable appearance of unsecured batches of absentee ballots after the deadline for receiving ballots, discriminatory conduct during the counting and observation process, and other violations of the law,” the opinion said.

Justice Zahra wrote in the opinion that there was a need for a postelection audit to assess the integrity of the elections.

“Plaintiffs, in my judgment, have raised important constitutional issues regarding the precise scope of Const 1963, art 2, §4(1)(h)—a provision of striking breadth added to our Michigan Constitution just two years ago through the exercise of direct democracy and the constitutional initiative process—and its interplay with MCL 168.31a and other election laws,” he wrote. “Moreover, the current Secretary of State has indicated that her agency will conduct a postelection performance audit in Wayne County.” 

Claims of fraud and lack of transparency have tainted the 2020 election. 

In the days following the election, a City of Detroit employee came forward and stated in an affidavit that she was instructed to pre-date absentee ballots incorrectly. 

In another case, a former IT worker in Detroit claimed that the voting machine equipment was being misused by poll workers at the TCF Center who were running batches of ballots through counters multiple times, up to ten at times.