President Donald Trump’s campaign announced a new lawsuit in Michigan on Tuesday night, alleging “multiple witness accounts of irregularities, incompetence, and unlawful vote counting,” in the state’s election.
In a statement provided to American Military News, the Trump campaign listed allegations including interference with and harassment of lawful election challengers, witnesses seeing ballots fed multiple times into a ballot scanner, and ballots received after election day being pre-dated and counted. The federal lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Michigan and names the Wayne County Board of Canvassers and the Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson as defendants.
The lawsuit comes after several news outlets called the race for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, but Trump has not conceded and has raised numerous legal challenges and calls for recounts. Trump led the race on election night, but Biden later passed Trump in the vote count and currently leads Trump by more than 145,000 votes in Michigan.
The lawsuit refers to an affidavit, signed by Jessica Connarn, an attorney who was acting as a Republican poll challenger, who said a poll worker told her they were being told to “change the date on ballots to reflect that the ballots were received on an earlier date.”
The lawsuit also identified an error in Michigan’s Antrim County, in which votes for Trump were miscounted and instead counted for Biden. The lawsuit states that the vote tabulating system involved in Antrim County, Dominion Voting Systems, was also used in other counties in Michigan, including Wayne County, against which the lawsuit is filed.
Among other allegations raised by the lawsuit were that at least two challengers said they observed ballots being counted where there was no signature or postmark on the envelope; two challengers allegedly observed spoiled ballots being counted and one challenger allegedly observed “over-votes” — votes with multiple candidates selected — being “corrected.”
“The 70 million Americans who voted for President Trump deserve transparency into the potentially unconstitutional conduct documented here. The numerous reports we have heard from credible witnesses of Michigan’s election processes are alarming. Every American should have faith in our electoral process and know that their legal vote was both counted and protected. Unfortunately, based on several witnesses’ accounts, that seemingly is not what occurred in the state of Michigan,” Matt Morgan, Trump 2020 campaign general counsel, told American Military News. “As we have said from the beginning, our campaign will continue to ensure all Americans can trust in a free and fair election, and this lawsuit is a noteworthy step toward achieving that goal.”
The lawsuit also comes days after crowds gathered outside a vote counting center in Detroit and videos taken from inside the center showed poll workers covering the windows of the center.
Fox News correspondent Matt Finn tweeted, “The scene at Detroit’s absentee ballot counting center is growing more heated. The windows now being covered up. Allegations of violations. Sec. of State says she welcomes challenges.”
The scene at Detroit’s absentee ballot counting center is growing more heated. The windows now being covered up. Allegations of violations. Sec. of State says she welcomes challenges. pic.twitter.com/oUL4A0h3Ku
— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) November 4, 2020
Trump’s team has also filed lawsuits in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
