Rick Pluta

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   State Attorney General Dana Nessel says her office has opened a criminal inquiry and is “actively investigating” whether members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers were the targets of illegal harassment as they met to certify the results of the November 3rd election.

Nessel says the inquiry will focus first on complaints by a Republican board member her life and her family’s safety was threatened. That was during and after a contentious meeting on certifying election results from Detroit and the rest of Wayne County.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   A bipartisan state board has certified the results of the November 3rd election.

That awards the state’s 16 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden.

The canvassers’ vote followed three hours of online public comment with more people lined up to speak.

The action averted fears of a drawn-out procedural fight over the results. Republican Party leaders at the state and national levels had called on the Board of State Canvassers to hold off on certification.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   Republicans on the Wayne County vote-canvassing board said they now have second thoughts about certifying election results in the state’s largest voting jurisdiction.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says it’s too late for them to change their minds and throw the statewide election results into doubt.

That’s after GOP canvassers in Wayne County said in notarized statements that they felt pressured to reverse their votes and certify the results after initially balking.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   Governor Gretchen Whitmer says Michigan’s COVID-19 numbers have taken a turn for the worse.

“This is the moment that medical experts have been warning us about, and dreading, since the beginning of this pandemic,” she said during an online news conference

Whitmer’s chief medical executive, Doctor Joneigh Khaldun, said Michigan is at its worst point since the start of the pandemic.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   The state Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on a challenge to Michigan’s ban on taxpayer funds to support private and parochial schools.

The fight is over a relatively paltry $2.5 million appropriation tucked into the $55 billion 2016 state budget.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   The Michigan Supreme Court is the next stop in a legal fight over whether guns can be openly carried at polling places on Election Day. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) and Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) say guns can be intimidating – especially in a contentious election. But gun rights advocates say the state can’t step on a right that’s guaranteed under state law.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel say it’s not too late to reinstate a ban on openly carrying guns at or near polling places on Election Day.

They are appealing a court ruling that struck down a directive from Benson that banned open carry in and near polling places on Election Day.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   An appeal has been filed after a judge struck down Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s ban on the open carry of guns at polling places on Election Day.

Unless it’s reversed by a higher court, Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray’s

decision applies to voting places and absentee counting boards next Tuesday. The only exception would be schools, churches and other places have banned open carry.

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   A lawsuit is challenging the rules ordered by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for partisan poll challengers on Election Day. 

The complaint filed with the Michigan Court of Claims says distancing and face covering directives will make it too difficult for poll challengers to see what’s going on as voters are checked in at voting sites.

Matthew Gronda is an attorney representing a Republican state House candidate and an election day volunteer. 

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   Gun rights groups have filed a legal challenge to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s ban on openly carrying firearms at or near polling places on Election Day. 

The rule bars the open carry of guns within 100 feet of a polling location, at a clerk’s office, or where an absentee ballot counting board meets.

The lawsuit claims Benson’s rule violates the Michigan Constitution and a state law that allows most people to openly carry a firearm in public places without a license.