Overview
- Michigan’s attorney general, governor, and secretary of state rejected the Justice Department’s request on Sunday, calling it baseless federal interference in elections.
- The DOJ letter, dated April 14 and signed by Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon, seeks all 2024 ballots, ballot envelopes, and ballot receipts from Wayne County with a 14‑day deadline and a threat to seek a court order.
- Federal officials argued they need the records because of Wayne County’s history, citing three voter‑fraud convictions and several lawsuits, while state leaders noted those cases were isolated, caught by clerks, and that a key 2020 lawsuit was dismissed as not credible.
- The Wayne County demand is part of a broader push that has included FBI seizures of 2020 ballots in Georgia, subpoenas for 2020 records in Arizona, and DOJ suits against 29 states and Washington, D.C., to obtain voter rolls.
- The dispute raises separation‑of‑powers questions because states run elections under the Constitution, and recent rulings in states such as Rhode Island have knocked back DOJ efforts to force production of election records.