Michigan Antrim County 2020 Election Results Challenge

Lawsuit filed by Matthew DePerno — a known election denier — on behalf of an Antrim County, Michigan voter against Antrim County challenging the results of the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The plaintiff, who voted in person during the Nov. 3, 2020 election, alleges that the 2020 election was fraudulent due to the county’s use of Dominion tabulators and voting machines and he therefore has the right to conduct an “independent and non-partisan [forensic] audit to determine the accuracy and integrity” of the results. The plaintiff contends that the Dominion tabulators “were shown to have miscounted votes cast for President Donald Trump and instead count[ed] them for Presidential Candidate Joe Biden.” The plaintiff also asserts that due to numerous issues, including “phantom voters” who allegedly cast erroneous ballots as well as “[a]dulterated ballots, phony ballots, fraudulent ballots, inexplicable vote switches” and more, the defendants conducted the election in a “fraudulent” manner that violated the Michigan Constitution. 

On Dec. 7, 2020, a trial court granted the plaintiff’s motion for a temporary restraining order and ordered that “Antrim County maintain, preserve and protect all records in its possession used to tabulate votes in Antrim County, to not turn on the Dominion tabulator in its possession and to not connect the Dominion tabulator in its possession to the internet.” The court order also allowed the plaintiff to collect forensic images of the county’s voting equipment. Subsequently, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) intervened in the lawsuit in support of the defendants. On May 25, 2021, the trial court dismissed the plaintiff’s claims as moot and concluded that there is “no right” under Michigan law for the audit that the lawsuit sought, particularly because a “petitioner under Article II, Section 4 does not get to choose his own audit criteria.” The plaintiff then appealed this decision to the Michigan Court of Appeals; on April 21, 2022, the appellate court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal. Finally, the plaintiff appealed this decision to the Michigan Supreme Court, which once again denied the plaintiff’s requested relief and dismissed the lawsuit on Dec. 9, 2022. 

Notably, DePerno, the lawyer behind this lawsuit, lost his run for Michigan attorney general in the 2022 midterm elections and is currently under investigation for tampering with voting equipment during the “independent” investigation he undertook in this lawsuit. On Aug. 8, 2022, Michigan Chief Deputy Attorney General Christina Grossi (D) sent a letter to Benson notifying her that the Michigan attorney general’s office asked for a special prosecutor to consider charging nine individuals, including DePerno, who allegedly illegally accessed voting equipment. Specifically, the letter stated that DePerno used identification numbers for voting machines in a subpoena, even though “the only way to get the Verizon modem ID number from the tabulators is to break open the security seals and physically remove the outer panels to look inside of the tabulators and read the ID numbers on the modems” — meaning that the machines had to be broken into to access this information. 

Last updated: December 16, 2022 9:47 am EST