Kristina Karamo, the current leader of Michigan’s Republican Party, was ordered last month to cover financial costs incurred by officials in Detroit amid a lawsuit she helped lead that challenged absentee voting in the city amid the 2022 elections.
Karamo, who supports Trump, was Republicans’ Secretary of State nominee, but she lost — by a huge margin — to Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic incumbent. Republicans lost in every statewide election held in Michigan last year, losing out on the governorship and position of state attorney general as well, and Democrats flipped enough seats in the state legislature to give their party unified control of both chambers there.
The legislative control combined with Gretchen Whitmer’s run as governor has meant Dems have been able to take bold policy steps since last year, including on protecting abortion and imposing new protections against gun violence, including red flag laws, which allow for restrictions on access to firearms for individuals suspected of posing a danger to themselves or others.
Karamo’s predictably failed lawsuit had used a shaky foundation to seek what at least at one stage was a demand for Detroit residents to either vote in person or pick up their absentee ballots in person. Considering thousands of Detroit residents had already started voting by mail by the time Karamo’s case was considered, following those wishes could have legally endangered their votes.
Often, Trump and allies of his have tried to raise claimed concerns about the security of the process of mail-in voting, which is roughly equivalent in practice to absentee voting, but there’s just no evidence of some kind of widespread and purposeful problem in recent United States elections. The dozens and dozens and dozens of judges and law enforcement investigators who’ve taken a look and concluded there’s nothing there aren’t conspiring to deceive!
Michigan Judge Timothy Kenny ordered that Karamo and others involved in the case pay $58,459. As highlighted by the Associated Press, Kenny described the earlier case as “rife with speculation, an absence of facts and a lack of understanding of Michigan election statutes and Detroit absentee ballot procedures.”
