Former DMC CEO Mike Duggan announcing sale of DMC to Nashville-based for-profit company Vanguard Health Systems. Vanguard recently laid off hundreds of DMC workers as it has done at other hospitals it owns across the country. In June, Tenet Health Care bought the debt-riddled Vanguard for $1.8 billion, announcing it plans more “cost-reduction” efforts. Photo: Diane Bukowski
Barrow says: unlawful candidacy violates election law, use of sample ballot illegal
Appeals Court places D. Etta Wilcoxson back on ballot, deals Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey 5th straight loss
JULY 9, 2013
From Mayoral Candidate Tom Barrow’s campaign
DETROIT (July 9) — The already uphill write-in campaign of former mayoral candidate Mike Duggan was likely dealt a fatal blow late last evening when a legal challenge was filed in the Wayne County Circuit Court by Detroit mayoral candidate Tom Barrow.
Mayoral candidates Tom Barrow and Krystal Crittendon at rally against appointment of Emergency Manager for Detroit..
Joined by activist Robert Davis, the suit alleges that Duggan’s write-in candidacy is illegal and violates both the Court of Appeals and the Circuit Court’s recent decisions which held him ineligible to be a candidate in the August 6th Primary Election.
Barrow is also seeking a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting the Duggan campaign from going any further and ending its advertising blitz which illegally instructs voters by using a sample ballot in violation of Michigan law at MCL 168.718.
In legal documents, Barrow cited Judge Lita M. Popke’s decision in Barrow v. Detroit Board of Elections, which removed Duggan from the August 6th ballot which, according to Barrow, also barred him from the primary ballot in any form. Barrow also claimed that he is violating state law in the illegal use of the official ballot. The actions effectively end any Mike Duggan campaign until November.
Candidate for City Clerk D. Etta Wilcoxson/ Photo Diane Bukowski
In a separate decision late yesterday, Winfrey lost again in the Court of Appeals which made short shrift of a desperate attempt to keep her strongest opponent, D. Etta Wilcoxon, off of the August 6th ballot after a Wayne County Circuit Court had ordered Winfrey to place Wilcoxin back onto the ballot. The appeals court decision makes it permanent.
Barrow stated “In less than 30 days Janice Winfrey has been admonished by eight judges including two from the Wayne County Circuit Court and two different Courts of Appeals losing every time on baseless ministerial legal maneuvers normally routinely handled by City Clerks all over Michigan thus wasting precious tax payer dollars.”
“In light of the 2009 debacle in which 60,00 ballots could not be recounted for which no one was held accountable and now these repeated rebukes, I now make a clarion call for the immediate resignation of City Clerk Winfrey as no city clerk in the history of the city has been admonished so many times and by so many different courts and judges. No one this unprofessional should be allowed to oversee the city’s election process,” demanded Barrow.
Barrow’s co-litigant Robert Davis.
Barrow is also seeking to have the court halt Duggan’s unauthorized use of the official ballot (to instruct voters on how to write-in his name) in violation of state law and lacking the proper restrictive language and form, ordering that all media material containing it be destroyed or deleted immediately.
“Once again, Mike Duggan has violated the law and multiple Judges’ orders, in attempt to illegally advance a candidacy that was ended weeks ago,” said Barrow, 64. “Lawlessness by city officials is at an unprecedented all time high and we must stop these folk who just ignore our rules and our laws.”
Along with Judge Popke’s order forbidding his candidacy, Duggan is also in violation of MCL 168.718 which bars anyone from using the official ballot without permission of the Elections Commission. The Statute that describes Duggan’s latest violation reads as follows:
MCL 168.718 Official ballots; printer, acts prohibited; instruction ballots, printing.
“It shall not be lawful for…any person other than the board of election commissioners….to print, or cause or permit to be printed, any ballots in any other form than the one prescribed by this act, or with any other name thereon, or with the names misspelled, or the names, devices or designs therein arranged in any other way than that authorized and directed by the said board of election commissioners; but it shall be lawful for said board of election commissioners and upon its authorization for the chairman and candidates named on the official ballots to procure any number of facsimiles thereof to be printed on red, yellow or blue paper and to circulate the same for the purpose of the instruction of voters. Said colored facsimiles shall have printed at the head the words “Instruction Ballot”.
When Duggan held a news conference to reverse his decision not to run as a write-in, he used a magnified version of the official ballot illegally. His subsequent literature, television and radio commercials all illegally use the city’s official ballot.
Call ’em Out members sit-in at City Clerk Janice Winfrey’s office March 22, 2010 to demand her resignation in the wake of 2009 election irregularities exposed by Tom Barrow.
“This should be an election about the future of Detroit, but Duggan and his attorneys continue to advance a candidacy in spite of the law, abetted by a seemingly rogue City Clerk,” said Barrow.
“Sadly our City Clerk has continually violated the Charter, state laws and a Judge’s order all to advance the candidacy of one person” stated Barrow, “the natural question is why? What motivates an elected official to so starkly violate her oath leading to a rebuff by eight different judges in less than one month”?
“It is unfair in a city which has a Corporation Counsel, a new Police Chief, an Inspector General, a Mayor and a City Council, all of whom should be looking into the illegal behavior of the City Clerk. It must never again be the duty of citizens to expend resources to prevent clearly routine and blatant illegal behavior,” declared Barrow.
CONTACT: Tom Barrow, 313-922-7769 – Option 4
TEXT: Keyword “BARROW” to 313131
