Republicans are suing Detroit after the city deleted drop box surveillance video amid an active Freedom of Information Act request for the footage from the Republican National Committee.
“Deleting drop box surveillance footage while there is a pending FOIA request for it is an assault on transparency,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We will hold Detroit accountable, as this secrecy has no place in a fair and secure election – Michiganders deserve better.”
The RNC on Aug. 20 submitted a FOIA request video footage of a drop box at Wayne County Community College during the Aug. 6 primary. City officials acknowledged the request on Aug. 21, and asked for an extension of 10 business days to produce the video.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
“Then on September 16th, we received a response, letting us know that the footage was ‘automatically’ deleted after 30 days,” according to the RNC.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the NRC and Kent County resident Jonathan Koch in Wayne County Circuit Court, cites City of Detroit Executive Order No. 2019-01 that established Detroit’s Records Management Policy, which is based on the General Schedules for Local Government for Retention and Disposal Schedules.
The policy states “retention is required, even if otherwise authorized by a schedule, if a FOIA request has been received, or if an investigation or litigation is imminent or has commenced.
“In such events, records may not be disposed of until conclusion of the investigation, litigation, or FOIA request,” it reads.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
The lawsuit also cites Michigan’s FOIA law that states a public body “shall protect public records from loss, unauthorized alteration, mutilation, or destruction.”
“The Department of Elections has violated the FOIA by deleting the video surveillance records referred to in Koch’s August 20, 2024 FOIA request after receiving the Request well before the date on which the Department of Elections was legally permitted to destroy the records,” the lawsuit reads.
“The Department of Elections has acted arbitrarily and capriciously by delaying its response to Koch’s August 20, 2024 FOIA request until twenty-six days after the request was received and until after the records had been deleted,” according to the filing.
“Further, by deleting records that had been requested by Koch more than two weeks earlier, the Department of Elections ‘willfully and intentionally failed to comply with (the FOIA) or otherwise acted in bad faith.’”
MORE NEWS: Locals welcome Lake County private prison’s reopening to house illegal immigrants for ICE
The RNC is asking for the court to direct the Department of Elections to retain video of voter absentee drop boxes when requested through FOIA, a ruling that officials “arbitrarily and capriciously violated FOIA,” and to impose civil penalties and award attorney fees.
“With the election underway, there is a real and imminent of irreparable injury that more video surveillance records of election drop boxes will be destroyed after a timely FOIA request is received,” according to the lawsuit.
The RNC contends the aim of the lawsuit is to “ensure this does not happen for the general election.”
The lawsuit from the RNC is among several in Michigan focused on eliminating potential voter fraud in the 2024 election in a critical battleground state that was decided by less than three percentage points four years ago.
Another pending RNC lawsuit against Detroit filed in late August centers on a gross imbalance of poll workers in the majority of the city’s 502 election precincts.
In that suit, the RNC points to 200 Detroit precincts without a single Republican election inspector during the August primary, as well as a 7-to-1 imbalance favoring Democrats over 335 precincts that provided information on poll worker selection.
In total, the Detroit Election Commission appointed 2,337 Democrats and 310 Republican inspectors, though 675 Republicans were nominated by the Republican National Committee. Of those nominated, only 52 were appointed, according to a DEC report cited in the lawsuit.
Section 168.674 of Michigan election law states commissioners “shall appoint an equal number, as nearly as possible, of election inspectors in each election precinct from each major political party.”
The lawsuit demands Detroit’s election commission use “appropriate practices and procedures to ensure the appointment of an equal number, as nearly as possible, of Republican and Democrat election inspectors” to comply with state law by Oct. 15, Fox News reports.
It remains unclear whether that happened.