A Michigan judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to audit and recount votes from the 2020 presidential election in Antrim County, a case former President Donald Trump touted as “major,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“By deciding this motion, the court is not saying that there were no problems in the way that Antrim County conducting its November 2020 elections,” 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer said during a Zoom video conference of the hearing.
“The clerk has admitted that there were challenges and problems in the elections, although the hand count ultimately of the presidential election showed the results were largely consistent with the canvas totals that were entered by the state and reported by the county. Nor am I saying that the processing of election data here was not corrupted or corruptible. I don’t have the facts to make that determination. I am saying that as pled, the plaintiff’s request for an audit is not available. Anticipating the possibility of appeal, this court will take all pending motions under advisement.”
County resident William Bailey and his attorney Matthew DePerno initially filed the suit to oppose a local marijuana retailer proposal but expanded the discovery phase of the case to include the election, the Examiner reported.
DePerno’s motion asked that they be able to conduct their own independent audit of the results even after a statewide audit in February by the secretary of state’s office affirmed the numbers reported by the counties and the state, according to the report.
“This statewide audit process affirms what election officials on both sides of the aisle have said since November — that Michigan’s election was conducted securely and fairly, and the results accurately reflect the will of the voters,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced in a statement on at the time.
In denying the motion, Elsenheimer said that an audit had already been completed and that the results were compatible with the state’s audit.
He said that DePerno and Bailey could still appeal the decision and put all other case related matters “on hold for the time being.”
Before Tuesday’s decision, former President Donald Trump said the case and an independent audit would show “massive” irregularities that he felt would be “determinative” in the election with a large block of votes for him being switched to President Joe Biden.
The ruling is yet another loss for Trump who continues to insist that the election was “stolen” from him and his 71 million supporters that voted in November.
Most of the other nationally filed cases ended up being dismissed, most on procedural grounds rather than on the merits of the case.
The most devastating legal loss took place just before January 6 when the United States Supreme Court refused to hear a Pennsylvania case alleging the state legislature violated its own state constitution by changes mail-in voting procedures without a public vote amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to published reports.
Source: Newmax
