ACLU Sues Michigan County Official, Argues He is Mandated to Certify 2024 Election
The ACLU of Michigan and two voters sued a member of the Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers on Tuesday after he claimed that he won’t certify the 2024 election if it’s “stolen” from former President Donald Trump.
The target of the lawsuit, Robert Froman, is a Republican and is one of four members of a county board in Michigan that is “responsible for certification of election returns for all national, state and local offices,” according to the county government’s website.
In an Aug. 6 article, the Detroit News reported that Froman said “he ‘most definitely’ believes the 2020 election was stolen from [former President Donald] Trump,” and when “asked if he would certify the 2024 presidential election if it unfolded the same way the 2020 one did, Froman replied, ‘No. And that’s why I’m there.’”
The ACLU asked a court in Kalamazoo County to rule that Froman is required to certify election results under the Michigan Constitution.
“It is critical the court make clear that county canvassers have a legal duty to certify the election based on the tabulated votes. That’s how democracy works,” Theresa Lee, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a Tuesday statement.
Froman and the Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers declined to comment on the case.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU argued the board of county canvassers has a mandatory duty to certify election results under the state’s constitution and election law.
“Since at least 1892, Michigan courts have held that canvassers cannot ‘go behind’ the returns and challenge the results based on allegations (or even evidence) of voter fraud,” the plaintiffs stated in the lawsuit.
The ACLU also emphasized the fact that disputes over election certification have been occurring all over Michigan, not just in Kalamazoo County. For example, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit to try to stop the certification of 2020 election results in Wayne County, which includes Detroit.
Also, the ACLU noted in the lawsuit that since 2020, “election deniers have increasingly been appointed to positions in various county boards, including at least in Wayne, Antrim, Muskegon, Berrien, and Kalamazoo counties,” and that the “threat of a disruption of the electoral system in Michigan this November is very real.”