Michigan judge dismisses GOP candidate's lawsuit alleging Detroit absentee ballot corruption as 'false flag'

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A Michigan judge rejected a request on Monday from GOP Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo to change the absentee voting process in Detroit ahead of Election Day, dismissing the Republican’s lawsuit as a "false flag of election law violations and corruption," Fox News Digital has confirmed.  

Thirteen days before the Nov. 8 general election, Karamo and others filed a complaint against Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey and the City of Detroit Board of Election Inspectors. 

Karamo, challenging Democratic incumbent Jocelyn Benson, alleged procedures for Tuesday’s election violate Michigan election laws and are reflective of corruption in the state’s largest city. 

The plaintiffs originally sought a preliminary injunction that would mandate all eligible Detroit voters vote in person or, if seeking an absentee ballot, to go into the Detroit City Clerk’s Office in person to obtain one.

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But in a decision Monday, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny alleged that Karamo and other plaintiffs "have raised a false flag of election law violations and corruption concerning Detroit’s procedures for the November 8th election." 

Republican candidate for Secretary of State Kristina Karamo speaks during a Save America rally on October 1, 2022 in Warren, Michigan.   (Emily Elconin/Getty Images)

"This Court’s ruling takes down that flag," the judge said. "Plaintiffs’ failure to produce any evidence that the procedures for this November 8th election violate state or federal election law demonizes the Detroit City Clerk, her office staff, and the 1,200 this election. These claims are unjustified, devoid of any evidentiary basis and cannot be allowed to stand."

The court found that Karamo and her team failed to establish the twelve alleged violations of Michigan election law regarding the counting of ballots in Detroit. According to the judge, testimony from the plaintiffs’ two sole witnesses — Christopher Thomas, former Michigan State Elections Director who served for over 30 years, and Daniel Baxter, director of Absentee Voting Operations for the Detroit City Clerk — did not accurately interpret or apply sections of state election law regarding signature violations for absentee ballots. 

Kristina Karamo, who is running for the Michigan Republican party's nomination for Secretary of State, gets an endorsement from former President Donald Trump during a rally on April 2, 2022, near Washington, Michigan.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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Kenny also noted that Karamo and the other plaintiffs themselves "did not testify nor introduce any substantive exhibits into evidence" regarding alleged election law violations. 

"Despite Plaintiff’s arguments to ‘shed light in a dark place,’ they have failed dramatically," Kenny wrote. 

Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State, arrives during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., US, on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.  (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"While it is easy to hurl accusations of violations of law and corruption, it is another matter to come forward and produce the evidence our Constitution and law requires," the judge added. "Plaintiffs failed in a full day of evidentiary hearing, to produce any shred of evidence." 

By the time Karamo filed the lawsuit, absentee ballots voting has already been in effect for weeks, so granting any relief would "egregiously harm the eligible voters of the city of Detroit," Kenny wrote. As of Nov. 3, approximately 60,000 absentee ballots had been returned to the Detroit City Clerk’s Office. 

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"The preliminary injunction would serve to disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible voters in the city of Detroit," the judge wrote Monday. "Additionally, the city of Detroit would be the only community in Michigan to suffer such an adverse impact. Such harm to the citizens of Detroit, and by extension the citizens of the state of Michigan, is not only unprecedented, it is intolerable."