Eight days before the election, Republican secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo stood before reporters to levy – without evidence – allegations of ongoing voter fraud in Detroit.
Attorneys representing Karamo filed suit last Thursday, alleging Detroit’s election practices will result in an “illegal election,” The Detroit News first reported. Her attorneys asked the court to dramatically change the availability of absentee ballots in the city, despite them being a state constitutional requirement,.
“The court should require all Detroit voters to vote in person or obtain their ballots in person at the clerk’s office,” Karamo’s lawyers wrote in the suit. They also are asking the court to stop accepting absentee ballots not obtained in person and to “halt the counting of ballots cast through drop boxes that are not effectively monitored.”
In a press conference minutes after the hearing, Karamo said she wasn’t asking for any of that, and her suit is simply requesting the court’s “guidance” on the allegations they raised.
“We do not want to see citizens have to physically present themselves,” Karamo said to reporters. “That’s not what we want to see (to vote absentee).”
Karamo said she didn’t know if or how many purportedly illegal absentee ballots had been cast, nor did she explain how they knew election fraud was ongoing in the city. Karamo attorney’s, Alexandria Taylor, couldn’t name any improperly monitored ballot drop boxes but said a statement would be provided later in the day with specifics. No statement has been received as of publication time.
Daniel Harman, Karamo’s other attorney, is also representing the Macomb County Republican Party in another suit that’s seeking to de-certify the 2020 election.
Against her suit’s own requests, Karamo insisted no absentee ballots of legal Detroit voters would be uncounted if her suit prevails. She claimed that because the city doesn’t properly verify signatures on absentee ballots, officials can’t distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent votes.
She alleged the city was “plagued by systemic election corruption” and said critics claiming voters would be disenfranchised by the lawsuit were lying.
Her lawsuit cites the conspiratorial documentary “2000 Mules,” which has been thoroughly debunked by elections experts. They also claim that a high-speed scanner used by the city — which Karamo alleged was illegal — has software “with strong ties to foreign election interference.”
Related: ‘2000 Mules’ fact check: Michigan experts debunk election fraud claims
Karamo rose to political prominence on unsubstantiated claims the 2020 election in Michigan was illegitimate and that former president Donald Trump won the election.
At the hearing, Karamo’s attorneys argued all 58 judges in the third circuit court, which covers Wayne County, should be disqualified because they could be influenced by their own participation in the upcoming election.
One major problem: Under state court rules, the circuit’s chief judge, Timothy Kenny, must handle all election cases. Kenny noted in the hearing he isn’t up for reelection and is retiring at the end of the year.
Hartman later backpedaled and said he’d been fine with Kenny overseeing the case.
“I want to make clear that we are not seeking to disenfranchise the voters of the city of Detroit,” Taylor said but they argue that purportedly improperly return absentee ballots shouldn’t be counted.
Attorney for Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, David Fink, has battled election conspiracy cases stemming from the 2020 election in the past.
Fink called the suit frivolous and unproven, adding that their motion “lacks any factual or legal basis.” He didn’t mince words about what he believed Karamo’s team was after.
“This case was intended to do one thing and only one thing, which is to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters in Detroit who mailed in their vote,” Fink said in the hearing over Zoom. “And to put the icing on the cake, they then want to make sure that no judge in Wayne County hears (the case). They’re going to try to find a judge someplace else who they think will listen to this and what this is nothing more and nothing less than Jim Crow.”
Both Karamo and Taylor, who are Black, resent the notion and said they were offended by the suggestion. Hartman called Fink’s claim the suit was racist “borderline unprofessional.”
The Michigan Republican Party, through a spokesperson, declined to comment on the lawsuit. As of Monday, more than 1 million Michiganders have returned their absentee ballots, according to the United States Election Project. The Detroit Free Press reported last Thursday that more than 43,000 absentee ballots in Detroit have already been returned.
Attorneys in the lawsuit will next meet for a status conference Tuesday. The election is Nov. 8.
MLive reporter Ben Orner contributed to this story.
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