DETROIT (WWJ) -- The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that elections officials in Wayne County turn over every ballot from the 2024 presidential election.
Officials sent a letter to Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett requesting paper ballots and ballot envelopes from the last election -- for what they say is to ensure that federal laws were followed because of a so-called "history of fraud convictions."
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel called the request baseless, pointing to years of investigations and court rulings that have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Wayne County.
Speaking to WWJ's Dan Jenkins, Votebeat Michigan reporter Hayley Harding explained that this request is based on a lawsuit in 2020 that was thrown out of court.
"The lawsuit that is mentioned, that it sort of hinges the entire request on, was almost immediately dismissed," Harding said. "The judge who dismissed it said it was 'rife with speculation and guesswork about sinister motives' — that is a direct quote.
"A lot of what is being suggested in that initial lawsuit back in 2020, and in this DOJ request now, is not rooted in face," Harding said. "There is not provable evidence for these things."
Harding said Wayne County doesn't have the ballots anyway. That's because city clerks in Michigan handle elections.
President Donald Trump, in recent months, has suggested that the Republican party should "take over elections" in several states, including Michigan. Experts have noted that Trump's proposal is constitutional, as Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution puts that power with states.
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