The Republican National Committee is taking Detroit to court over a little thing called "election integrity." You remember, that thing politicians used to pretend to care about?
According to Michigan law, election commissioners need to hire "an equal number, as nearly as possible" of poll watchers from both major parties. But in Detroit's August 6th primary, the city hired 2,337 Democratic inspectors and 310 Republicans, giving a ratio of 7.5 to 1 in favor of the Democrats.
The lawsuit says that, of the 335 precincts in Wayne County that bothered to show their work, 300 had way too few Republican inspectors. And when it came to leadership positions, Republicans only got 32 out of 335.
Michigan law also says that every precinct must have at least one inspector from each major party, but surprise surprise! Detroit missed that memo. The RNC found out that 202 precincts didn't have a single Republican inspector.
The Republicans actually submitted a list of 675 nominees to the city clerk, Janice Winfrey, who is named in the lawsuit as a defendant. But out of those 675 names, only 51 heard back.
If you recall, Michigan has seen previous allegations of lopsided poll watching. Detroit's TCF Center was a scene of absolute chaos in the 2020 election, with claims that Republican poll watchers were not being allowed inside.
The Detroit Free Press (and many other news outlets) said that the hysteria was unwarranted in that case; that poll watchers were not being allowed inside because there were already an equal number of watchers from each party that exceeded the allowed maximum.
In this current case, the RNC, along with some Wayne County GOP chairs, is asking the court to step in and force the city to play fair. They're saying Detroit's actions reek of "bad-faith Democrat interference."
The RNC also won another lawsuit against the Michigan secretary of state for telling election workers to be, let's say, "chill" about verifying absentee ballot signatures. The judge wasn't having any of it, saying a presumption is still a presumption, no matter how you slice it.
And there's even more legal drama on the horizon with the RNC challenging Michigan's voter roll maintenance.
If these allegations prove to be true, it shows just how terrified the Democrats are of losing.
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