Group Sues to Invalidate Michigan Election Results, Claiming Widespread ‘Lawlessness’

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, left, and President Donald Trump in file photographs. Getty Images

The Amistad Project filed a lawsuit this week asking Michigan’s Supreme Court to invalidate the state’s election results, arguing that state and local officials engaged in unlawful conduct in how they handled the election.

“The pattern of lawlessness was so pervasive and widespread that it deprived the people of Michigan of a free and fair election, throwing the integrity of the entire process into question,” said Phil Kline, the head of the Amistad Project. They said that officials engaged in unlawful behavior to the extent that it deprived Michiganders of a free and fair election.

What’s more, the group called on Michigan to physically secure “all evidence of irregularities in the 2020 election and declare the election results invalid.”

Secretary of State Joceyln Benson’s office has not responded to a request for comment. Previously, she and her office has said that they’ve seen no evidence of fraud or irregularities that would turn over the election results. On Friday, Benson suggested there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Michigan or Detroit. Benson, meanwhile, cited a statement from Christopher Krebs, the fired head of the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity division, saying that no widespread fraud occurred.

But attorneys for Amistad said Benson and election officials throughout the state violated the law.

“Benson circumvented the explicit intent of the Michigan Legislature, which established an absentee ballot process designed to minimize the risk of fraud,” they said. Benson instead deployed “unsolicited absentee ballot applications to every household in the state without verifying whether the intended recipients were still residing at the same location, whether they were eligible to vote in 2020, or even whether they were still alive,” they added.

The attorneys also noted that mail-in and absentee ballots are susceptible to fraud.

This “vulnerability was exacerbated,” they argued, “by the numerous irregularities during the vote-counting process, particularly in Wayne County, detailed in numerous affidavits included with the Amistad Project’s litigation.”

The Amistad Project, overseen by the Thomas More Society, filed an emergency petition in nearby Wisconsin, challenging the state’s election results.

“We have identified over 150,000 potentially fraudulent ballots in Wisconsin, more than enough to call into question the validity of the state’s reported election results,” said Kline in a statement earlier in the week. He noted that around 144,000 fraudulent votes and over 12,000 legal votes weren’t counted.

Several days ago, meanwhile, Michigan’s Board of Canvassers voted to certify the state’s election results, coming after one GOP member said he was threatened and harassed—with some making reference to his wife and children—for expressing doubts about the election results. Two members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers also said they received threats and harassment and filed an affidavit to rescind their votes but ultimately to no avail.