The Republican National Committee and the Michigan Republican Party have launched a lawsuit that contends officials in Detroit, a Democratic stronghold, are failing to appoint enough GOP election workers to comply with state law.
The Republican lawsuit asked a judge to issue an order specifically requiring Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, to treat nominees for the position of election inspector for the Nov. 5 election from the two major political parties “equally throughout the process.”
Election inspectors are responsible for checking-in voters, issuing ballots, assisting with tabulation and helping with processing absentee ballots, according the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.
The new suit, filed Thursday in Wayne County Circuit Court, came amid a continued onrush of voting-related litigation in Michigan and was similar to a 2022 GOP suit that targeted the breakdown of election inspectors in Flint, another Democratic stronghold.
For the Aug. 6 primary, the Detroit Election Commission appointed about 2,337 Democratic election inspectors and about 310 Republican election inspectors, according to the Republican-led lawsuit. Those numbers meant 300 of Detroit’s 335 precinct failed to achieve the state’s somewhat uncertain standard that there be “an equal number, as nearly as possible” of election inspectors from each major political party, the suit argued.