Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is joining state Sen. Sylvia Santana and another Democratic candidate who lost their race at last month’s Michigan Democratic Party convention in a call to have a third-party firm audit the election results.
Santana filed an appeal with the party after she says she lost the Michigan State University trustee race by 15 votes. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald is also calling for an independent audit after she lost the convention election for attorney general to Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit.
“Petitioners learned that members were voting from as far away as Montenegro and Antrim County during the convention,” Santana claims in her filing.
Santana isn’t commenting on the matter but a source close to her trustee campaign told Michigan Chronicle they believe many delegates who voted in the Michigan State University Board of Trustees race signed up after the 30-day deadline. Over 7,000 delegates voted at Huntington Place in Detroit last month.
Incumbent MSU trustees Brianna Scott and Kelly Zemke won the endorsement, which means their names will appear on the November ballot.
Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel prior to the convention called questions of whether delegates could vote remotely “baseless attacks.” Former lottery commissioner and candidate for Secretary of State, Suzanna Shkreli, demanded the state party release its process and procedures for voting in the week leading up to the April 19 convention.
“There’s a substantial and documented difference between voting on a third-party mobile phone application at a partisan convention and the long-established, decentralized process utilized by over 1,600 bipartisan clerks each election,” Nessel said in a statement Monday that riled up Republicans, who have since 2020, accused Democrats without evidence of “rigging” the 2020 election in favor of former President Joe Biden.
Progressives won big at the convention last month, earning victories in the Secretary of State race with Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Savit, a progressive prosecutor from Ann Arbor. However, Santana was the lone candidate backed by progressive groups and coalitions who was defeated.
Santana’s race was decided by the slimmest margin of votes in any race at the convention.
A leaked spreadsheet showing the votes of all party delegates including elected office holders obtained by Michigan Chronicle showed Nessel voted for Savit, but she says she abstained from voting in the race.
One former U.S. House candidate from Antrim County told The Detroit News she was able to cast her vote through the email voting system from her home in northern Michigan.
The Detroit News first reported on the voting data leak last week and Santana’s appeal on Monday.
Michigan Democratic Party convention rules require members to be present inside building where the convention takes place in order to vote.
“Members were required to be in-person at the Huntington Place to credential and vote,” Derrick Honeyman, a spokesperson for the party told Michigan Chronicle in a statement. “Any voting that took place off-site is a violation of party rules.”
Honeyman explained candidates had until May 4 to submit a formal appeal. The party’s Appeals Committee will review submitted appeals and determine next steps.
“We are committed to following the appeals process and ensuring it is fair and independent,” he said.
It’s not clear when the committee plans to meet.
The allegations have prompted some Democrats to argue for doing away with the process in which certain state offices are elected by party members during convention instead of by statewide voters in a primary election.
“After reviewing the results of the MDP Endorsement Convention, it became clear that votes were incorrectly recorded, people voted who were not onsite, and some votes were not recorded at all,” McDonald said in a statement. “I strongly support Senator Santana’s request for an independent audit, and urge my Democratic colleagues across the state to support it as well. It is critical that every voter and every campaign have confidence in the vote.”
