LANSING, Mich. (Legal Newsline) - A Michigan court has denied a group of voters their emergency relief request that local election officials in heavily Democratic areas return funds they received from a private source, or redistribute the money equally among all election officials.
But in his opinion, Judge Christopher Murray of the Michigan Court of Claims wrote on Oct. 16b in Ryan, et al v. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson that “these issues will likely not be moot after the election given the shortness of time to actually litigate these important issues.”
The judge also ruled that the voters, the plaintiffs in the case, do have standing contrary to the claims of the defendant, Benson. He will issue a scheduling order that will allow for additional discovery from Benson and from the sources of the private money.
“In short, the litigation continues,” Mark (Thor) Hearne II of the Missouri firm, True North Law, LLC, the lead attorney for the voters, told Legal Newsline.
“Should the Michigan Presidential or Senate election (or any other state-wide race) be decided by a narrow margin, resolution of this litigation remains critical and may still shape the outcome of the election,” Hearne said.
Since July, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a group of former Obama-era operatives masquerading as a non-partisan, good government group, has donated millions to the heavily Democratic urban areas in Michigan, according to the action filed by the Michigan voters on October 7.
CTCL has donated at least $3.5 million to Wayne County and Detroit; $467,625 to Flint; $417,000 to Ann Arbor; $443,000 to Lansing and $8,500 to East Lansing; $433,580 to Muskegon; $402,878 to Saginaw; and $218,869 to Kalamazoo. Rural/more Republican areas in the state were overlooked.
Hearne said that the use of the private funds and the targeting of select areas in the states violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Michigan Constitution, its purity of elections clause and state law that bans the use of private funds in the administration of elections.
“Private special interest organization selectively paying only certain local election officials money to conduct an election, specifying how the local election officials in these select jurisdictions spend the money and requiring the election officials to report back to the special interest group after the election detailing how they spent the funds is a violation of equal protection, corrupts Michigan elections and destroys public confidence in the outcome of the election,” Hearne said.
CTCL has targeted Democratic areas in other battleground states.
In early September, the group received $250 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. In mid-October, CTCL received another $100 million from the couple. Zuckerberg and Chan also donated $50 million to the Center for Election Innovation & Research.
The Louisiana Senate last week approved legislation, which originated in the House, that bans private funds from the administration of the state’s elections.