(The Center Square) – Detroit’s Election Commission is facing a lawsuit for selecting a disproportionately high number of Democrat poll workers in the August primaries, a possible violation of Michigan election law.
The commission appointed about 2,337 Democrat poll workers and about 310 Republican poll workers, an imbalance of more than 7 to 1.
“Detroit’s failure to hire Republican poll workers is the kind of bad-faith Democrat interference that drives down faith in elections,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chair Lara Trump said. “The RNC is bringing suit to remedy this completely unacceptable breach of public trust and our unprecedented election integrity campaign will continue to fight in Michigan and nationwide to protect the rights of every voter to have fair, accurate, secure and transparent elections.”
Poll workers, also known as election inspectors, assist voters and manage ballot counting. They also identify and report any irregularities or issues that arise during the election process. The state’s election law requires the board of election commissioners “shall appoint an equal number, as nearly as possible, of election inspectors in each election precinct from each major political party,” to help ensure election transparency and fairness.
The imbalance resulted in 35 voting precincts having roughly equal party representation, “and 200 of the 335 precincts failing to have even a single Republican election inspector, despite the fact that qualified Republicans applied or were identified but were not pursued or selected,” according to the suit.
Besides Republican citizens who had individually applied, the RNC had provided a list in May of 676 poll worker candidates; the city hired 52.
The lawsuit demands the city oappoint more Republican poll workers for balanced party representation in the upcoming November General Election.
“Our constitution was founded on the concept that checks and balances are the best way to ensure fairness,” Pure Integrity Michigan Elections founder Patrice Johnson said. “When your numbers are out-of-kilter and you don’t have equal representation, the check-and-balance system breaks down.”
Detroit has 502 election precincts according to the most recent city reports, but 335 precincts provided information on poll worker selection.
