DETROIT, MI – As Detroit continues to struggle with their election operations, concerns are being raised about the integrity of their system as it relates to Michigan election law.
According to Michigan election law, it is required that all major political parties have fair representation in election workers. Despite many Republicans applying for these positions in Detroit, Democrats were chosen to fill hundreds of the election worker spots, while Republicans were only able to have representation from a handful of individuals.
According to Wayne County Canvassing Board Chair Monica Palmer, “Republican applicants were either rejected or flat out never received a call from the City of Detroit.” Palmer continued, “While there was ample opportunity for Detroit to faithfully follow through on what Michigan election law requires of them, the evidence at TCF raises questions about the hiring process for Detroit Election Inspectors, specific to the absentee counting board.”
“It is an outrage what is happening in the City of Detroit right now, and Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson are to blame for this mess.” said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Laura Cox. Cox continued, “Republicans have been shut out of the process in Detroit because of Benson and Winfrey’s partisanship, in a flagrant violation of Michigan’s election laws. I call for a full investigation of the election operation in Detroit, which has been compromised to its core.”
This is not the first time Detroit’s election operation has been called into question. During the August 2020 primary election, 72% of Detroit absentee voting precincts did not balance, meaning the machine counted a different number of votes than were indicated by city records.
The Michigan Republican Party is currently monitoring numerous irregularities that occurred with the counting and reporting of votes throughout the state of Michigan.
One of the irregularities was a reporting error in Antrim County, which skewed initial returns in the unofficial election results tabulations. According to Antrim County, the glaring discrepancy in vote totals was caused by a software program used in several communities throughout the state of Michigan. Once the error in Antrim County was corrected, we saw a net swing of over 6,000 votes going in favor of President Trump and John James.
In addition, the Michigan Republican Party is looking into allegations that thousands of ballots were dropped off at the City of Detroit counting board after 3:00 AM, following volunteers having been told that the final batch of votes was processed hours before. The situation was exacerbated when Wayne County Clerk Kathy Garrett refused to report how many votes in Wayne County were outstanding, in an interview with CNN this morning.
“The irregularities reported this morning are incredibly troubling, especially given how close the election results are in Michigan.” said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Laura Cox. Cox continued, “At this point, it is unclear whether or not these issues were caused by incompetence or corruption, but the fact that they exist is of great concern, and the Michigan Republican Party will spare no expense to expose the truth of what happened in yesterday’s election.”