Speaker Pro Tem Rachelle Smit on Tuesday welcomed Detroit community leaders, including activist Ramon Jackson and Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, for testimony before the House Election Integrity Committee. Jackson and Sewell presented concerning information alleging systemic voter fraud in Detroit’s election systems, including long-running investigations and documentation of fraudulent absentee ballots being cast.

“These reports and claims are very concerning, especially since we are repeatedly told that our elections are completely safe and secure,” said Smit, chair of the Election Integrity Committee. “If these claims are accurate, and the scale and scope are this bad, then Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel clearly aren’t doing their jobs, and they’re failing the people of Michigan.”

Jackson and Sewell have been vocal advocates for election integrity, previously leading a delegation of more than 80 Detroit residents to Washington, D.C., to discuss these issues with lawmakers. Their committee testimony shed light on numerous instances where individuals documented that absentee ballots were cast in their names without their knowledge or consent.

“These are the people that they’re preying on,” Jackson said during committee testimony. “The people who are unstable and have a low-to-no voter history. They grab and register them back and they don’t have a clue.

“Most of the people that I catch them doing this with, if I didn’t talk to them, they would never, ever have a clue this was going on or they wouldn’t even care that they’re doing this to them.”

Jackson also spoke of his frustration with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel. Jackson previously met with representatives of each, only to be ignored and stonewalled.

“They eventually just stopped returning our calls,” Jackson said.  “They refuse to take action.”

Tellingly, rather than investigating Jackson and Sewell’s claims and working with the activists to improve Michigan elections, Benson and Nessel have opposed their efforts in a federal lawsuit.

Pastor Sewell is known for his leadership at 180 Church and his involvement in initiatives like “Souls to the Polls,” which emphasizes the importance of restoring public confidence in the electoral system.

“Just like Detroit has moved the world through the music of Motown. Just like Detroit has moved the world through the automotive industry. Now, Detroit is about to move the world with fair elections,” Sewell said during committee testimony. “Because if we don’t have fair elections, we do not have a democracy. If we don’t have fair elections, we’re like China. Today I represent a group of people that have been disenfranchised, that have been marginalized, and that have been pushed aside.”

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