Birmingham voter intimidation prompts lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Eastern District in Detroit on Tuesday, November 5, against six unnamed individuals and requested and received a temporary restraining order to prevent the individuals from intimidating voters following incidents in both Royal Oak and two Birmingham voting locations on Election Day.
The ACLU legal action was based on voter protection provided in the Ku Klux Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Michigan Constitution.
According to documents on file with the court, the ACLU asked the court to prevent what one observer called an organized group from “engaging in intimidating behavior” while traveling to multiple voting locations in Oakland County, including Birmingham and Royal Oak. The individuals, according to an affidavit on file from poll watcher Steven Raimi of Berkley, were filming voters both outside polling places and in at least one instance, inside the polling building. In one instance, members of the group made threats about possible violence to a voter’s child should presidential candidate Kamala Harris win the election.
The Birmingham instances happened at the voting polls inside Derby Middle School and at The First Presbyterian Church.
A second affidavit from a Birmingham woman, who in the past had been an election worker, told about six individuals filming in the hallway of the polling place. She alerted an election worker on Tuesday that filming was not allowed but members of the group claimed they had a right to film. When Birmingham police arrived on the scene, they reportedly said that there was nothing they could do about the situation and no arrests were made.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a letter on October 10 in advance of the election to all law enforcement officials noting that it was illegal for persons to “use video cameras, cell phone cameras” at polling places.
The federal case is pending before District Court Judge Terrence Berg who was expected to hold a hearing in the case by the end of this week.
