Michigan judge rejects GOP secretary of state nominee’s push to toss absentee ballots

A Michigan judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from Republican Secretary of State nominee Kristina Karamo to change Detroit’s absentee voting practices just days before the election.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny accused Karamo and her fellow plaintiffs of raising a “false flag of election law violations and corruption” in their lawsuit, after failing to “produce any shred of evidence.”

“Plaintiffs’ failure to produce any evidence that the procedures for this November 8th election violate state or federal election law demonizes the Detroit City Clerk, her office staff, and the 1,200 volunteers working this election,” Kenny said. “These claims are unjustified, devoid of any evidentiary basis and cannot be allowed to stand.”

Karamo, who has frequently questioned the results of Michigan’s 2020 presidential election, filed a lawsuit against Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey and the City of Detroit Board of Election inspectors on Oct. 26, just 13 days before Election Day.

The GOP secretary of state nominee sought to require Detroit voters to cast their ballots in person or obtain an absentee ballot in person, as well as to block alleged violations in the counting of absentee ballots in Detroit.

However, the judge noted that absentee voting began weeks before Karamo filed the lawsuit, and about 60,000 absentee ballots had been cast as of Nov. 3.

Kenny warned that granting in Karamo’s favor “would serve to disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible voters in the city of Detroit, and “the city of Detroit would be the only community in Michigan to suffer such an adverse impact.”

The judge added that Karamo’s allegations of violations in the counting of absentee ballots were “unsubstantiated and/or misinterpret Michigan election law.”