(The Center Square) – The Michigan Republican Party is punching back at Attorney General Dana Nessel’s felony charges filed this week against 16 people accused of being “false electors.”
On Tuesday, Nessel’s office announced the felony forgery and conspiracy charges her office is leveling against 16 Republicans who signed certificates falsely claiming they were “duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan” after the 2020 election.
The GOP characterizes Nessel’s actions as a potential abuse of power while describing her prosecutions of the 16 as “illicit.”
In a lengthy news release, the GOP says election challenges are “common occurrences,” citing seven Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who filed objections over the results of the 2016 election.
The GOP noted that an alternative slate of electors has been legal since the 1876 elections.
They also listed several state election improprieties that could potentially justify the use of an alternative slate of electors. As an example, the GOP referenced a finding by the Michigan Court of Appeals that the secretary of state’s office violated state law by verifying a number of absentee ballot signatures greater than the margin between candidates.
“This is an absolute prohibition and merely confirms a challenge without considering other anomalies that have been discovered,” the GOP said.
The same 16 defendants being prosecuted by the attorney general’s office have already testified before a grand jury investigation in Washington, D.C.; no charges were filed at the time, the GOP said.
In transcribed remarks by the attorney general, Nessel said, “These defendants may have believed the now long-debunked myths of vote tampering or ballot dumps. They may have felt compelled to follow the call to action from a president they held fealty to. They may have even genuinely believed that this was their patriotic duty. But none of those reasons or feelings provide legal justification to violate the law and upend our Constitution and our nation’s traditions of representative government, self-determination, and a government by the people.”
