News & Media

In Michigan, Voting Rights Groups Are Preparing to Counter ‘Anti-Voter’ Activists on Election Day

On Election Night 2020, there was commotion at the convention center in downtown Detroit, Michigan, where absentee ballots were being counted. Republican groups had called for a wave of supporters to show up at the site, and many of them raised claims of election fraud. Democratic and nonpartisan election groups dispatched volunteers to be present as well, adding to the crowds. The rush of volunteers who showed up—about double the permitted number of challengers at the site—initially flooded the counting floor at the arena, then called the TCF Center, in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of poll challengers roamed the basement where ballots were piled, with one observer urging her colleagues to “challenge every single ballot.” Some observers ignored the rule keeping their distance to an allowed 6 feet away from the counters, and began encircling tables and chanting “stop the count.” Some of those present had to be removed from the floor by police, like one challenger in a white full-face mask who yelled that the process was “crooked,” and protestors later banged on windows to the counting room. On social media, fevered claims circulated, like a photo of ballots supposedly being imported on a wagon—though the supposed proof was a snapshot of a local news photographer moving equipment.

But after election administrators worked in the tense atmosphere until Thursday at 4:30 am, the Detroit ballots were counted, the Detroit Free Press wrote. Chris Thomas, a former director of elections for the Michigan Secretary of State who worked under the administrations of both parties, worked to fact-check claims on social media, saying he was "extremely confident" in Detroit’s vote-counting process.

A couple weeks later, the Michigan appeals court rejected as “not credible” a Republican legal challenge to the counting of absentee ballots in Detroit. On Nov. 18, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers—after an initial refusal by its two Republican members—certified the election results.

Learning from the 2020 experience, election administrators oversaw a smoother ballot counting process in the 2022 midterms, ensuring that the downtown Detroit site was free of chaos. Two Republican statewide candidates who had denied the 2020 election result, gubernatorial challenger Tudor Dixon and state attorney general challenger Matt DePerno, conceded their races the day after voting.