Conservative group sues Lansing, Flint over 'undue influence' from privately funded election grants

Lansing State Journal

LANSING – A conservative group called the Election Integrity Fund is suing Lansing and Flint, arguing it's illegal for those cities to use private grant money to help run the Nov. 3 election.

Lansing is using $440,000 awarded from a nonprofit called the Center for Tech and Civic Life for purposes including obtaining high-speed ballot scanners, paying elections staff, installing more ballot drop boxes and mailing absentee ballot applications to all the city's registered voters, City Clerk Chris Swope said.

Flint received $475,625 from the same Chicago-based organization and Flint's clerk planned to use the money for voter education campaigns, installing drop boxes and paying and training poll workers, according to news reports.

Boxes of absentee ballots seen Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, at the City Clerk's Office in Lansing.

The Center for Tech and Civic Life targeted its grants to increase turnout in cities with "progressive voting patterns," according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

The grants create an unconstitutional public-private "entanglement" that violates the federal Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act, the suit argues.

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Joe Cantin returns his absentee ballot to a drop box outside the Lansing City Clerk's Election Unit on Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in Lansing.

In accepting the grants, Lansing and Flint circumvented a legally authorized process by which money for running elections is distributed by states with guidance from the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission to city and county clerks, the lawsuit says.

"The idea of the federal and state government exclusively funding federal elections is to eliminate undue influence and the appearance of undue influence by private parties," lawyers for the Election Integrity Fund wrote. "CTCL’s private funding of federal elections re-introduces undue influence and the appearance of undue influence into federal elections."

Lansing resident and GOP activist Linda Lee Tarver and Flint residents Kirklyn Valentine and Jim Miraglia, a Republican candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives, have joined the Election Integrity Fund in filing the suit, which asks for an injunction that would bar Lansing and Flint from using the grant money.

Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope speaks Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, at the downtown CATA Transportation Center in Lansing, during a ceremony celebrating the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote.

The Center for Tech and Civic Life announced this year it would use a $250 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan to award the grants to local election offices for staffing, training and equipment.

In a statement, the Center for Tech and Civic Life called the challenge "baseless" and described the grants as a response to election officials who've said they lack adequate funding.

"All eligible Americans deserve to have their vote count — regardless of political affiliation, whether they live in rural or urban communities, or somewhere in between," the statement reads. "As a nonpartisan organization backed by Democrats, Republicans, and nonpartisan officials, we are confident that these frivolous charges are without merit, and look forward to continuing this critical grant program in these unprecedented times."

Swope, Lansing's clerk, declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday, adding that he had not seen it. Officials with the Lansing City Attorney's Office and the City of Flint did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Contact reporter Sarah Lehr at slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.