Michigan: Stoddard v. City Election Commission of the City of Detroit

INTRODUCTION
1. This lawsuit challenges the ongoing action of the City Election Commission of
the City of Detroit and the Detroit City Clerk with respect to one-party control of the Absent
Voter Counting Board (“AVCB”) operating out of TCF Center (formerly known as Cobo Hall).
Specifically, individual inspectors from a single major political party are “curing” rejected
absentee ballots – those absentee ballots that cannot be properly read by the electronic counting
machine -- including transposing the voter’s perceived choices onto a new ballot, without the
required oversight and signatures of two election inspectors—one from each major political
party. These rejected absentee ballots are reviewed by only one inspector, in most cases a Democratic inspector, who then unilaterally decides how the voter intended to vote and creates a
ballot that can be read reflecting the inspector’s unilateral decision.
2. This violates MCL 168.765a (10), which requires one inspector from each party
to be present at the AVCB. It also violates the Secretary of State’s rule, as set forth in her
controlling Election Officials’ Manual, requiring that any cured ballot bear the signature of two
election inspectors who have expressed a preference for different political parties. See
168.765a(13). In application, this arrangement in the TCF Center fails to comply with Michigan
law and invites fraud.
3. This action seeks an order: (a) halting further “curing” of absentee ballots rejected
by the counting machines until one inspector from each party is present to observe the cure and
sign the cured ballot; and (b) segregating the rejected and cured ballots; and (c) halting
certification until the statutorily-required inspectors can be located and used to ensure election
integrity