BREAKING: State Moves to Dismiss Lawsuit Seeking Absentee Ballot Info

Latest Battle in Michigan FOIA Wars

By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor

January 28, 2026

Michigan’s Bureau of Elections (BOE) is asking Michigan’s Court of Claims to dismiss with prejudice Michigan Fair Elections Institute’s lawsuit demanding access to public information about Michigan elections. MFEI is saying the state produced a report summarizing data, so they want to see the underlying data.  

Following the 2024 primaries, the BOE redesigned a standard report called the “Entire State Next Elections Voted List.” Election data investigators were quick to notice the redesigned report was no longer providing crucial details about absentee ballots. MFEI investigators, wanting access to the missing data, submitted a FOIA request on October 20, 2025, asking BOE to provide “copies of the underlying records referenced by the ‘Entire State Next Election Voted List.’”  

In a motion for summary disposition filed on Monday, the BOE claims it does not have the records requested. In a sworn affidavit, Deputy Director of Elections Adam Fracassi explained the basis for the denial. According to Fracassi, the BOE is interpreting MFEI’s FOIA as a request for “documents that triggered the data entries populating the report.”  

Patrice Johnson, founder and chairperson of MFEI, said, “The information the state provided quoted sum totals. We are simply asking to see how things add up.” Johnson said, “If they claim the answer is 4, we have a right to see if they added 2 plus 2, 1 plus 3, or 0 plus 4. Nobody would accept a bank statement that only gives totals.” 

Fracassi explains how the system works: clerks enter data into the Qualified Voter File based on documents such as “voter registration forms, absent voter applications, and absent ballot return status.” The Bureau of Elections does not have access to those documents. According to Fracassi, “The Bureau does not receive or maintain these records.”  

Fracassi is saying the records MFEI wants aren't at the state level. They are scattered across hundreds of clerks’ offices.  

The motion to dismiss says MFEI’s lawsuit “fails to identify any responsive documents in the Bureau’s possession that were not produced.”  

MFEI officials believe the BOE could be deliberately misinterpreting the FOIA request, sending investigators on a wild goose chase for documents when QVF data is at the heart of the request, data that is collected electronically and maintained at the state level. 

Tom Lambert, the attorney representing MFEI, notes the BOE denied MFEI’s FOIA request out-of-hand within three days of receipt. He says, “BOE could have reached out for clarification of the request, but instead they immediately denied the request in full.”  

“We were advised to expect a motion to dismiss from the BOE,” Johnson explained. “Naturally, the BOE, as the defendant, will try to have the lawsuit dismissed. The focus of the dispute is on what is a reasonable interpretation of MFEI’s FOIA request. This is what Court of Claims Judge Sima G. Patel will have to decide.” 

"The focus of the dispute is on what is a reasonable interpretation of MFEI’s FOIA request." -- MFEI Founder and Chair Patrice Johnson

Johnson also suspects BOE’s focus on physical documents is related to its move to make citizen-led election audits impossible.

In a written statement to MFEI News & Commentary, Johnson said, “The state has issued a rules package forcing clerks to erase their electronic pollbooks seven days after an election is certified. They’re instructing clerks to print out preformatted paper reports instead of simply backing up the data onto a $12 flash drive.”

Johnson continued, "Rule Set 2025-14 went into effect Oct. 23, 2025, taking data access away from local clerks and making citizen access to public information slow and costly."

"Nobody can use a paper printout.” Johnson pointed out, “and federal law requires all election records be stored for 22 months, so this looks like a violation of federal law, 52 U.S.C. § 20701.”  

Tim Vetter, lead data investigator for the MFEI Data Evaluation of Election Processes (DEEP) team, calls the FOIA denial “a direct assault on election integrity and transparency.”  

In a written statement from Vetter to MFEI News & Commentary, he quotes state law, saying the BOE is “mandated to maintain the Qualified Voter File (QVF) as the official, centralized database for all voter records in Michigan.” 

Vetter goes on to explain, “Federal law under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) further requires states to uphold a single, uniform, and accurate computerized voter registration list as the ‘single source of truth for election administration. Yet the BOE claims these underlying records ‘do not exist’ in their possession and that producing them would require ‘creating’ new documents — despite the QVF being designed precisely to aggregate and manage this data from local clerks.” 

If Judge Patel dismisses the case, Johnson says MFEI is prepared to appeal. “Government transparency and accountability are what divide a free nation from a totalitarian state.”