DOJ demands Detroit-area 2024 ballots, escalating election scrutiny

Source: msn/Washington Post

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The Justice Department is demanding all ballots from the 2024 election in the Detroit area, a highly unusual move that comes shortly after prosecutors seized 2020 ballots in Georgia and obtained 2020 election records in Arizona.

The push to collect thousands of election records in swing states is part of a sweeping effort by President Donald Trump and his administration to scrutinize elections that has cast doubt on how they are run. Trump has spent more than five years falsely claiming the 2020 election was rigged against him. In recent months, he has shifted his focus to this fall’s midterm elections by seeking to restrict voting by mail and urging Republicans to “take over” voting in “at least 15 places,” such as Detroit.

The latest demand is for ballots, ballot envelopes and ballot receipts in Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit. It came from Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who oversees the Civil Rights Division and is widely viewed as auditioning to replace Pam Bondi as attorney general. Dhillon sent her letter Tuesday, and Democratic state officials released a copy of it Sunday.

Those officials — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, state Attorney General Dana Nessel and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson — decried the demand as a baseless attempt to undermine the public’s confidence in elections. “If this administration wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote,” Nessel said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/doj-demands-detroit-area-2024-ballots-escalating-election-scrutiny/ar-AA21g4Pj