Why Michigan Republicans Side With Democrat AG Who Threatened to Prosecute Over Facebook Posts
Fred Lucas /
The Donald Trump-backed candidate for state attorney general says he supports the move by his former opponent—Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat—to threaten to prosecute a GOP township candidate over her Facebook posts.
Matthew Deperno, Nessel’s former opponent and the lawyer for Michigan’s Kalamazoo County Republican Party, said Kerry Lynn Elieff likely broke a law against election interference when her campaign’s Facebook account posted a video on polling locations in Ross Township.
Elieff was a candidate for township supervisor. She lost an Aug. 6 GOP primary to incumbent Supervisor Christina Hutchings.
Days before the primary, Elieff told The Daily Signal, she received a cease-and-desist letter from Nessel’s office warning that she could be prosecuted if she didn’t remove the Facebook post.
But Deperno, a fellow Republican who lost to Nessel in 2022, said he supports what her office did in this case.
“The attorney general’s office was correct in this instance,” Deperno told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Wednesday. “The law is about trying to improperly influence an election. Instructing people on the wrong polling location could interrupt someone’s ability to vote.”
Deperno referred to the statute cited in the cease-and-desist letter to Elieff, which prohibits any action that could “influence,” “deter,” or “interrupt” a voter in casting a ballot.
Deperno added that he doesn’t anticipate Elieff will be charged.
“The attorney general’s office told her to remove the post. She removed it,” Deperno said. “I don’t see this going any further with charges.”
Deperno himself faces felony charges in Michigan—along with several other Trump supporters—for challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the state during the 2020 presidential election.
For her part, Elieff told The Daily Signal earlier this month that she didn’t believe she broke any laws—and said she only wanted to warn voters of a change in polling locations.
The local Republican candidate also said she didn’t discourage anyone from voting, and had suggested that voters get an absentee ballot if uncertain where their polling place was.
“They sent the letter without reaching out, or even saying if you feel there is an error contact us,” Elieff told The Daily Signal last week, referring to the attorney general’s office. “There was no investigation. It was a beatdown. It was a ‘Shut up, lady’ message.”
Eileff did not immediately respond this week to inquiries from The Daily Signal.
In the previous interview, she said the Facebook posts at issue were honest.
“I know everything I posted is true. But I thought this isn’t worth going to jail for, so I modified or deleted some posts,” Elieff said.
The candidate said she never discouraged voting, adding: “I even said in one of the videos, ‘Don’t let this keep you from voting, vote absentee.”
The letter, dated July 24, was signed by Robbin N. Liddell, chief of the Criminal Trials Division of the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
Liddell’s letter to Elieff read, in part: “It has come to the attention of our office that you have spread misleading or false election information regarding polling locations in Ross Township through on-line sites. Specifically, MCL 168.932(a) prohibits and criminalizes this conduct.”
The letter says Elieff must “CEASE AND DESIST the use of online platforms to continue spreading false or misleading information regarding the Ross Township polling locations.”
Elieff maintained that she doesn’t know what was “misleading” about what she posted and isn’t aware of anyone else challenging the accuracy of her posts.
The Michigan statute specified by Liddell reads: “A person shall not attempt, by means of bribery, menace, or other corrupt means or device, either directly or indirectly, to influence an elector in giving his or her vote, or to deter the elector from, or interrupt the elector in giving his or her vote at any election held in this state.” In this case, “elector” means voter.
Patrice Johnson, chairwoman of Michigan Fair Elections, said her organization’s lawyer reviewed the situation and determined that the election statute shouldn’t have applied to Elieff’s social media posts. The organization previously worked with Elieff.
The Daily Signal and several other national news outlets reported on the cease-and-desist letter to Elieff. Most did not report that her primary challenge to the incumbent in Ross Township was part of larger inner squabbling in the Republican Party of Kalamazoo County, Michigan.
“She has lied and slandered myself and the party for a year and a half. Now the media is turning her into a hero. That is not OK,” Kelly Sackett, chair of the Kalamazoo County Republican Party, told The Daily Signal.
Elieff described new polling locations in her June 12 post on her campaign’s Facebook page as well as on other social media accounts. She accused the government of Ross Township of not following the law in notifying the public of changes in polling places.
Ross Township Clerk Mary Stage issued a response, asserting that the township followed the law properly.
“In January 2024 a motion was proposed to the Ross Township Board to move precinct 2 to a new location for the August 2024 election,” Stage said in a public statement. “This motion was unanimously approved.”
“In April 2024 a motion was proposed to the Ross Township Board to move precinct 1 for the August 2024 election,” Stage added. “This, also, was unanimously approved. These approvals meet the 60-day requirement for approving new polling locations required by the state of Michigan.”
Sackett said simply of Stage: “The clerk has done everything right.”
The case captured the interest of Michigan media as well as national outlets since the attorney general’s letter came just weeks after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, announced an effort to “combat any election-related misinformation targeting Michigan voters.”
“I don’t approve of the tactics the attorney general and the secretary of state are doing, trying to get neighbors to report each other,” Sackett said. “But that’s not the case here. The bottom line is she [Elieff] misinformed people about the voting location, and some people didn’t get a chance to vote because they didn’t know where to vote.”