Judge denies injunction in lawsuit filed by spurned Democratic U of M regent candidate

An attendee at the Michigan Democratic Party Nominating Convention in Lansing holds a sign for Huwaida Arraf, a candidate for the University of Michigan Board of Regents on Aug. 24, 2024. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols

A judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed by a Palestinian American activist against the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) alleging a lack of election integrity in the party’s nominating process.

Huwaida Arraf, a civil rights attorney who was one of three candidates running for two Democratic nominations for University of Michigan regent, filed the suit Thursday in Ingham County Circuit Court, along with Madeleine Tocco and Jennifer Kirby, described in a press release as “new young members of the MDP.” The lawsuit also named MDP Chair Lavora Barnes and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Following a hearing Friday, Ingham County Circuit Court James Jamo denied Arraf’s motion for a restraining order and dismissed Benson from the case. 

“The judge found that he didn’t have jurisdiction generally,” Arraf told the Michigan Advance. “This wasn’t necessarily against Benson. We don’t have any issue with the secretary of state, but we named her as a necessary party because if we got relief from the Michigan Democratic Party, the secretary of state would have to take notice and take action in terms of not moving forward with the printing of the two names that they have now.” 

Arraf, Tocco and Kirby claim that the MDP violated their own rules during the Aug. 24 convention held in Lansing, alleging the party carried out the nominating process “in a manner that was procedurally flawed, violated the principles of free and fair elections, and violated the MDP’s own Rules for Voting and Elections (RVE).”

At the Lansing convention, Arraf faced two other Democrats: current Regent Denise Ilitch, who was first elected to the board in 2008, and Dr. Shauna Ryder Diggs, who had previously served as a regent until 2020. Both were endorsed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and a coalition of labor unions.

But after a lengthy voting process, which utilized the party’s proportional voting system, Arraf fell short of the votes needed to win nomination for one of the two regent positions, with the MDP saying Diggs received more than 2,800 votes to finish on top, followed by Ilitch with over 2,400 votes. The MDP said Arraf received just over 2,300 votes. 

The results prompted Arraf’s backers to begin chanting, “Show the math,” in protest, itself an allegation that the party had manipulated the process to deny her nomination. Arraf said that instead of the MDP coming into court to prove otherwise, she claimed they instead argued that it didn’t matter. 

“It was obnoxious what their lawyer was arguing, basically that they are not accountable to their members,” said Arraf. “They can do whatever they want, and because it doesn’t say in their bylaws that there is a process for a recount or an audit of a vote that seemed to be unfair, they were saying the judge can’t really order us to do it.”

Despite failing to get injunctive relief from the judge on Friday, Arraf says she plans some sort of appeal, although the exact form it will take is still being decided.

A request for comment was sent by the Michigan Advance to the MDP, but has yet to be returned.

Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), has courted controversy before, having been accused of supporting terror groups including Hamas in her advocacy of Palestinian sovereignty.

Her candidacy for U of M regent followed nearly a year of protests by students demanding the regents divest the university’s financial holdings from Israel and cut off any academic connections as a consequence of the more than 40,000 civilian deaths that have resulted from the ongoing war by Israel against Hamas militants in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and led to 240 hostages being taken.

According to the MDP’s voting rules, votes at the convention were weighted proportionally by county using a formula “based on the Democratic voting strength of that county relative to the state as a whole at the last General Election.” The result is that some delegate’s votes had more value than others.

Arraf said while she doesn’t think that particular system is truly democratic, that was not the basis of her lawsuit. Instead, she questioned the manner in which the votes were counted, claiming that she and her staff were denied entry to the convention’s tabulation room while other candidates and their families were among those who were given admittance. She also claims that there were 174 more voters than were credentialed to vote that day.

Arraf has repeatedly requested MDP leaders provide the raw data used in the process, as well as a complete list of MDP members duly-credentialed to serve as delegates. 

We are asking for the raw data from the VOATZ machine, incl time stamp & geolocation for each vote, plus the final list of properly credentialed voters.

We are 100% ready to accept that we did not win, once we confirm the data. We don’t understand why the MDP won’t provide it.

— Huwaida for UMich Regent (@huwaida4umich) September 4, 2024

She filed the lawsuit Thursday when that demand wasn’t met, with a request for a temporary restraining order “enjoining the Secretary of State from finalizing November ballots until Arraf’s appeal is concluded, a full and transparent investigation of the vote-counting process is conducted, and a recount of the votes in conformity with MDP bylaws and rules is conducted.”

Even though Friday was the deadline for the Michigan Department of State to send county clerks the list of candidates for office in the upcoming general election, Arraf says there is still time for her case to be heard and, if a judge rules in her favor, for her name to be included.

“We do believe that there is extra room, that we still have a little bit of wiggle room within the Michigan Election Law in terms of the ballots aren’t printed now,” said Arraf. “Things are finalized and then they go to the counties and then the counties print sample ballots, and the candidates check their names and the spelling and all of that. So we believe that we have maybe another week. So, no, this is not the end of it.”