Ex-Michigan Officials Sue to Stop Absentee Ballots from Being Counted if They Arrive After Election Day

A pair of former Republican Michigan secretaries of state on Tuesday sued to stop the state’s plan to count late-arriving ballots.

The Detroit News reports:

The suit in the Western District of Michigan is the latest escalation in a legal fracas focused on a state that President Donald Trump won by 10,704 votes in 2016. The suit argues that Michigan’s current policy risks placing “the resolution of the contest past dates Congress has set for” the so-called safe-harbor deadline for settling disputes of Dec. 8 and the Dec. 14 Electoral College vote.

[…]

Ruth Johnson and Terri Lynn Land — two former GOP secretaries of state — along with Republican activist Marian Sheridan are the plaintiffs.

“It will remain unknown who wins the state’s vote for at least 14 days after Election Day, and any contest about the ultimate result is unlikely to reach a conclusion before the safe-harbor deadline or even before the vote of the Electoral College,” reads the lawsuit.

“There is a substantial risk that plaintiffs’ votes will be completely meaningless, if either Michigan loses its representation in the Electoral College or its asserted results do not qualify for the safe harbor,” the lawsuit adds.

The lawsuit comes as the Michigan Department of State said there have been a record 2.55 million absentee ballot requests made thus far.

Michigan has received at least 28,00 ballots, according to local clerks.