Resource: Reed-Pratt v. Winfrey

Plaintiff sued City Clerk for the City of Detroit, Detroit Department of Elections, and Detroit Election Commission for violating her procedural and substantive due process rights by mailing of an unsolicited absentee voter application. Plaintiff voted in person in the August 4, 2020 democratic primary elections. Purportedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Defendants mailed unsolicited absentee voter applications to plaintiff and other registered voters in the City of Detroit. Plaintiff alleged that the pandemic did not authorize Defendants to violate Michigan Election Law, including the right to apply to vote by absentee ballot. Plaintiff also contended that she had been denied her constitutional and statutory rights to request an absentee voter application as well as procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Finally, plaintiff requested the court to find Defendants in criminal contempt for violating the Wayne County Circuit Court’s March 23, 2006 permanent injunction issued in the case Taylor v Currie, 05-524513-AW, and affirmed on appeal, 277 Mich. App. 85; 743 NW2d 571 (2007), lv denied, 483 Mich. 907; 762 NW 2d 169, (2009).