Court denies appeal by Michigan voters claiming election fraud
The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected an appeal in a legal challenge seeking to halt the certification of election results from Wayne County and initiate an independent audit of the election. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two voters in Wayne County (where Detroit is located), was ruled against on Friday by Wayne County Judge Timothy Kenny, who called the plaintiffs’ claims “incorrect and not credible.” The Monday decision by the state’s Court of Appeals permits the Wayne County Board of Canvassers to complete its certification of the county’s election results by its Tuesday deadline. The lawsuit claimed there were several instances of election fraud at the TCF Center in Detroit, where Wayne County’s absentee ballots were tabulated after the Nov. 3 election. One of the individuals who filed an affidavit, Jessy Jacob, is a furloughed city worker who was temporarily assigned to the clerk’s office, according to court documents. Jacob alleged in her affidavit that she witnessed “City of Detroit election workers and employees coaching and trying to coach voters to vote for Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.”
In his Friday ruling, Kenny called the accusations by Jacob “serious” but stressed that the claims assert “behavior with no date, location, frequency, or names of employees.” Kenny also highlighted how Jacob came forward only after after President-elect Joe Biden was projected to be the winner based on the the unofficial election results for the state. David Kallman, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the voters, told the Detroit Free Press after the lawsuit was first shot down on Friday that he thought there were “some points” in Kenny’s opinion that his team didn’t “feel were factually accurate.” The Washington Examiner left a voicemail with Kallman’s office on Monday night seeking further comment.
Kenny referenced six affidavits filed by the defendants in response to the lawsuit, highlighting former state elections director Christopher Thomas’s affidavit pushing back on claims of electoral malfeasance. “After analyzing the affidavits and briefs submitted by the parties, this Court concludes the Defendants offered a more accurate and persuasive explanation of activity within the Absent Voter Counting Board (AVCB) at the TCF Center,” he wrote in his decision. In addition to an independent audit of the county's election and a halt vote certification in Wayne County, the lawsuit also asked for a new election in the county. Wayne County was overwhelmingly won by Biden, with 68% of the vote to President Trump's 30.6%, translating to a difference of nearly 323,000 votes. Biden won the state of Michigan by about 144,532 votes, or a 2.6-point margin.
The loss Monday in the Michigan Appeals Court is separate from the Trump campaign’s lawsuit in Michigan federal court over fraud allegations. The Trump team lawsuit alleges several instances of electoral malfeasance, largely stemming from the TCF Center and claims from Republican poll challengers that they faced intimidation and harassment during the tabulation process. Prior to the federal litigation, the Trump campaign had filed a lawsuit in Michigan state court that was shot down. Another lawsuit filed in state court by a nonprofit group alleging fraud was also ruled against. The Washington Examiner reached out to Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett for comment.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/court-denies-appeal-by-michigan-voters-claiming-election-fraud
https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/Costantino-v-Detroit_Order-Denying-Relief.pdf