NTD’s legal correspondent breaks down the lawsuits currently filed by the Republican National Committee in the battleground state of Michigan. Meanwhile, Democrats have different ways of countering them.
And here's our legal correspondent Arlene Richards with a breakdown of the current
lawsuits the Republican National Committee has filed in the battleground state of Michigan.
Meanwhile, Democrats have different ways of countering them.
The presidential candidates are battling for 15 electoral college votes in Michigan,
where several Republicans have been charged with acting as false electors. Now, as you know,
in 2020, former President Trump's campaign lost multiple lawsuits filed in several states,
including Michigan. Among the number of reasons for dismissing his cases,
courts said the lawsuits were filed too late or they were filed in the wrong court.
Now the Republican National Committee, or RNC, is getting ahead of the game
by filing lawsuits earlier and in different courts. First up, a case filed in federal
court in March. The RNC accuses the Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of failing to maintain
clean and accurate voter registration records, an alleged violation of the National Voter
Registration Act, which she denies. The RNC says at least 53 counties have more active
registered voters than they have adult citizens over 18. Benson says she's already made reasonable
efforts to remove ineligible voters, and that's all she has to do under the law.
The RNC wants the court to issue a judgment saying Benson violated the law and order her
to take more action to comply with it. But the Democratic National Committee, or DNC,
has intervened in the lawsuit. They're asking the court to throw out what they call a dangerous
and flawed lawsuit. But that's not stopping the RNC. In July, they filed a different lawsuit
against Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The RNC and the Trump campaign accused Whitmer and Benson
of exceeding their authority by designating the Federal Veterans Affairs and Small Business
Administration sites as voter registration agencies. They claim these states' offices
cannot be used for a federal election. And while that's going on, Governor Whitmer signed a bill
into law that prohibits vote recounts based on election fraud claims. Under the law,
candidates have to have a good faith belief that there was an error in the vote counting process
that prevented them from winning. Turning now to our next RNC lawsuit filed last month, this one
against the Detroit election inspector. Under Michigan law, there should be an equal number
of inspectors from both parties. The inspectors are paid to assist with local elections at voting
sites. The lawsuit claims the city hired 310 Republican inspectors and 2,337 Democrats.
And finally, a bipartisan group of former Michigan governors have joined forces.
They're combating attacks on voting and ballot counting in several swing states, not just
Michigan. It's called the Democracy Defense Project, which includes officials from several states
where Trump said there was election fraud. Their goal, to build trust in elections through radio
and TV ads, media outreach, and local engagement. There are other lawsuits and pre-election
developments in Michigan not involving the RNC, such as Michigan citizens who also filed lawsuits
challenging voter rolls. Tiffany, back to you.
