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A group of Black Michigan voters and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization have filed a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump and his campaign of violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The plaintiffs accuse Trump and his campaign committee of pursuing a number of tactics to overturn the results of the 2020 general election in Michigan.
Now that Trump’s litigation in the state surrounding the election has proven unsuccessful, the Michigan voters say, the defendants are putting pressure on state and local officials to not certify the results, suggesting that “state legislatures override the will of the voters by installing President Trump’s slate of electors.”
Trump and his campaign “are openly seeking to disenfranchise Black voters, including voters in Detroit, Michigan,” the lawsuit states. “Repeating false claims of voter fraud, which have been thoroughly debunked, Defendants are pressuring state and local officials in Michigan not to count votes from Wayne County, Michigan (where Detroit is the county seat), and thereby disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.”
The Michigan voters say these tactics “repeat the worst abuses” in U.S. history, pointing out Black Americans were not allowed to vote for most of the nation’s first 200 years.
“No more,” the lawsuit says. “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 flatly prohibits Defendants’ efforts to disenfranchise Black people and assault our Republic. This is a moment that many of us hoped never to face. But we are here, and the law is clear. It is time to enforce it.”
President-elect Joe Biden carried Michigan by more than 150,000 votes, winning a total of 50.63% of the vote compared to Trump’s 47.85%, according to the lawsuit.
In Wayne County, though, Joe Biden won by a much larger margin: 597,170 votes compared to 264,553 for Trump.
“That included a margin of over 200,000 votes in Detroit, Michigan,” the lawsuit states.
Central to Trump’s new strategy is the disenfranchisement of voters in predominantly Black cities, such as Detroit, the lawsuit alleges.
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers met to certify election results Nov. 17, but initially were deadlocked at 2-2, with two Republican members declining to certify based on “minor discrepancies” affecting only about 400 ballots, according to the Michigan voters’ lawsuit.
One of them said she’d be open to certifying Wayne County if Detroit’s results were not included.
Trump was pleased about the board failing to certify the results.
But after “public outcry during the meeting,” the lawsuit says, the Republican candidates voted to certify the election results later that night.
Trump then called both of them, according to the Michigan voters’ lawsuit. After they spoke with him, they provided his campaign with two affidavits saying that even though they voted to certify the results, they’re still opposed.
While there’s no legal mechanism allowing for them to rescind their votes after the election results are certified, Trump’s campaign filed a notice to withdraw its federal lawsuit in Michigan, “relying on the affidavits and falsely asserting: ‘The Wayne County board of canvassers met and declined to certify the results of the presidential election.’”
The state board of canvassers, also made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, meets today to certify statewide results, and the plaintiffs are concerned that “though there is no legal basis for the Board not to certify the results, they are already facing tremendous pressure from Republican activists not to certify the official county results.”
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the attorney leading Trump’s election lawsuits, said Thursday the campaign has hundreds of sworn affidavits attesting to alleged improprieties by poll workers in Detroit, according to the New York Post.
The Michigan voters are asking for a declaration that the defendants have violated the Voting Rights Act. They are also asking the Court to stop the defendants from continuing to pressure Michigan officials to disenfranchise voters by not certifying results or “by appointing an unlawful slate of electors” and for any other relief the Court finds appropriate.
Did you vote in Wayne County? Do you agree with the Michigan voters who filed this lawsuit? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Janai S. Nelson, Samuel Spital, Monique N. Lin-luse, Anuja D. Thatte of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund Inc.
The Michigan Voters’ Voting Rights Act Lawsuit is Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-03388, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
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