Michigan officials push back on DOJ demand for ballots

Michigan officials are pushing back on the Justice Department’s demand that the state provide ballots and other elections materials from the Detroit area to prove that no fraud took place in the 2024 election.

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, sent a letter on Tuesday to the chief election official for Wayne County, Mich., requesting that the clerk produce all ballots — including absentee and provisional — from the 2024 federal election, along with ballot receipts and ballot envelopes.

Dhillon cited past voter fraud cases from the county and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 as a basis for the request, and she threatened a court order if the county does not comply with the demands in a timely manner.

But Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, sent a letter on Friday forcefully rejecting Dhillon’s demand for election materials, saying she was “dismayed” to learn the senior DOJ official sent the request, which Nessel characterized as based on “conspiracy theories dating back to 2020.”

“The courts, our officials, and our legislature have all determined that these theories are baseless, and they certainly provide no support for a demand for 2024 election records,” Nessel wrote in the letter.

“Accordingly, Michigan stands ready to defend against these claims and any attempt to interfere in Michigan’s elections,” she continued.

Nessel was joined by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, in a subsequent statement on Sunday, in which they described Dhillon’s letter as “the latest in a troubling pattern of DOJ search warrants and demands for election material in Arizona, Georgia, and Missouri.”

“Michigan’s elections are safe and secure, and any attempt to suggest otherwise is an attempt to take away Michiganders’ constitutional right to vote,” Whitmer wrote in the statement.

“This demand is a poorly disguised attempt to justify more doubt and misinformation about our elections as well as direct federal interference,” she continued.

The Michigan officials also pushed back on the three specific cases that Dhillon cited in her letter, noting they were successfully prosecuted by the state’s attorney general’s office. The civil case Dhillon cited was also dismissed after the 2020 allegations were found to be “incorrect and not credible,” and none of the cases in the letter were from 2024, the officials noted.

Nessel said the successful prosecutions underscore the strength of Michigan’s elections safeguards and demonstrate “that instances of voter fraud are rare and addressed.”

“Using these prosecutions and recycling debunked 2020 election conspiracy theories as justification to demand copies of the ballots of Michigan residents is a clear attempt to bully clerks and spread fear, even after Donald Trump won Michigan in 2024,” Nessel wrote on Sunday.

“If this administration wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote,” she added.

Benson characterized the letter as the Trump’s administration’s “latest attempt to interfere in our elections,” saying, “Their goal is to sow seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of the results this November and in 2028.

“We won’t be intimidated by these tactics,” Benson continued. “We stand with Wayne County to ensure we protect the integrity of our elections and the privacy of Michigan voters. And we are ready to do the same with any other Michigan clerks DOJ threatens in this way.”

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