A Michigan judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by President Trump’s campaign was made public on Friday, saying a “vague and equivocal” sticky note was insufficient evidence of ballot-tampering by poll workers.
Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens also dismissed claims Thursday by an election challenger who said he was prevented from reviewing absentee ballots — without specifying “when, where or by whom.”
The suit filed Wednesday had demanded poll workers stop counting ballots as Joe Biden was leading by a thin margin in the Midwestern state, charging that poll workers were coerced into validating illegal ballots and that poll observers had been blocked from doing their jobs.
During a hearing Thursday, Trump’s lawyer presented an affidavit from a local election official who claimed a poll worker told her that she had been instructed to change the receipt date of a late mail-in ballot to reflect that it had been received by the Election Day deadline.
Wrote Stephens: “The assertion that Connarn was informed by an unknown individual what “other hired poll workers at her table” had been told is inadmissible hearsay within hearsay and plaintiffs have provided no hearsay exception for either level of hearsay that would warrant consideration of the evidence.”
“The note — which is vague and equivocal — is likewise hearsay,” she continued, referring to a photo of a sticky note submitted as evidence which read “entered receive date as 11/2/20 on 11/4/20.”
The judge also said a poll observer who claimed to have been “excluded” during the review process had provided no evidence of this.
“The complaint does not specify when, where, or by whom plaintiff was excluded. Nor does the complaint provide any details about why the alleged exclusion occurred,” Stephens wrote.
The case — brought by the election challenger and Trump’s re-election campaign against Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson — was thrown out Thursday when Stephens ruled it was moot since Biden had already carried the Wolverine State.
It was just one suit in a flurry of litigation as the president tries to invalidate vote counts in states that Biden is poised to win.
Stephens said the Trump campaign acted too late by filing their lawsuit at 4 p.m. on Wednesday when vote counting was already well underway and showed Joe Biden with a roughly 149,000 vote lead.
The state and its 16 electoral votes were called for the former veep on Wednesday afternoon. Trump carried Michigan by just 10,000 votes in 2016.
Welcoming the decision Friday, the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel called the suit “meritless.”
“The Trump campaign’s lawsuit demonstrates either a failed attempt by plaintiffs to cobble together a legitimate claim, or their clear lack of understanding of Michigan’s election laws,” read the statement from press secretary Ryan Jarvi.
“The will of voters is what matters in this election, and their ballots in Michigan have been counted in a transparent, fair and accurate manner,” it continued.
A federal judge and a Georgia judge threw out similar suits in Philadelphia and Georgia on Thursday.