The Republican National Committee (RNC), Michigan GOP, and Wayne County Republican committees have filed a lawsuit against the City of Detroit's Election Commission, accusing it of violating state election law by appointing a disproportionately high number of Democratic election inspectors compared to Republicans. The lawsuit claims that hundreds of precincts in Detroit lack Republican poll watchers entirely.
Michigan’s election law mandates that election commissioners appoint at least one inspector from each major political party in every precinct and strive for equal representation from both parties. However, the RNC argues that Democrats outnumber Republicans by a ratio of 7.5 to 1 in the city’s election inspector appointments. Additionally, in Wayne County, 202 of the 335 precincts reportedly have no Republican poll watchers at all.
The lawsuit asserts that this imbalance is not due to a shortage of Republicans willing to serve. Paula Gnacke-Nemeth, former Chairwoman of the Wayne County Republican Party, provided a list of 675 Republicans ready to act as election inspectors to the Detroit Election Commission. However, only 52 individuals from that list were appointed, bringing the total number of Republican poll watchers to approximately 310, compared to 2,337 Democratic appointments.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chairwoman Lara Trump called the situation bad-faith Democrat interference that undermines confidence in elections.
Michigan is a key battleground in the upcoming race between President Trump and Kamala Harris.
