Trump-Backed Karamo Says Michigan’s ‘Promote the Vote’ Initiative Is Deceptive

The Republican candidate for Michigan secretary of state is warning voters that a disarmingly worded ballot proposal to amend the elections section of the state constitution is really a cynical ruse to deceive voters into thinking they’re voting for elections to be more secure, although she says the opposite is true.

Kristina Karamo told reporters at an Aug. 10 press conference in suburban Detroit that, if adopted by voters in the November midterm elections, the liberal political action committee-backed “Promote the Vote” initiative would constitutionally mandate the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in every community in the state. As secretary of state, Karamo would be the state’s top elections official; she’s running against Democrat incumbent Jocelyn Benson.

According to the proposal, drop boxes must be accessible 24 hours per day, from 40 days prior to the election until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

A sign pointing in the direction of a ballot drop box at the Schmidt Community Center polling station in Lansing, Mich., on Nov. 3, 2020. (Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images)

To illustrate the potential for fraud, Karamo played a short video of a woman who, in broad daylight, is about to deposit a stack of absentee ballots into a drop box.

The woman suddenly notices that the outside of the envelopes hadn’t been signed, as required by law.

The woman then gets into the passenger-side front seat of a waiting car and proceeds to sign each envelope herself, using the dashboard as a writing surface, before dropping them into the drop box.

“That was not an isolated incident in 2020,” Karamo stated.

It’s illegal in Michigan for anyone but a small statutorily designated list of persons to have custody of someone else’s absentee ballot.

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The Promote the Vote proposal would also amend the state constitution to

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