The United States Department of Justice has officially demanded that Wayne County, Michigan, turn over a massive trove of records from the November 2024 federal election, citing federal authority to investigate potential voting violations.
In a letter dated April 14, 2026, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division notified Wayne County Clerk Cathy M. Garrett that the federal government is seeking all physical ballots—including absentee and provisional—along with ballot receipts and envelopes.
The demand is rooted in the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which mandates that election authorities preserve records for twenty-two months following a federal election. Under this law, the Attorney General has the power to inspect all materials related to “acts requisite to voting.”
Federal officials noted that these records include everything from tally sheets and computer programs to the paper ballots themselves.
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Federal investigators explicitly linked the request to a history of legal challenges and criminal cases within the county.
The DOJ letter pointed to past fraud convictions, specifically naming individuals like Nancy Juanita Williams, who was charged with forging signatures on absentee ballots, and others such as Carless Clark and John Paul Parana, who were charged with impersonating voters.
Beyond individual criminal cases, the DOJ highlighted systemic allegations stemming from the 2020 election cycle. The Department referenced previous litigation claiming that election workers in Detroit were instructed to ignore signature mismatches, backdate late ballots, and process votes for people not found in the Qualified Voter File.
One specific allegation mentioned in the federal correspondence involved the arrival of “tens of thousands” of unsecured ballots at the TCF Center after the 2020 deadline.
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The Department of Justice stated that this move is aimed at “ensuring that federal election laws were not violated” during the most recent 2024 cycle. The county has been given a strict 14-day window to comply with the request and produce the materials for federal review.
Acting Chief of the Voting Section Eric Neff is overseeing the inquiry. The DOJ warned that if the county fails to meet the two-week deadline, the federal government is prepared to seek a court order to force the production of the records.
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