2023: Katherine Riley Was Appointed As A Republican Canvasser. According to Wayne County, Riley was serving a four-year term that was set to end in 2027. [Wayne County, 2024]
2022: Katherine Riley Was An Election Denier. “Katherine Riley, who serves on the Board of Canvassers in Wayne County — which includes the heavily Democratic city of Detroit and has the largest number of Michigan voters — has continued to deny the results of the 2020 election, has repeated election conspiracy narratives and even led training sessions attempting to expose fraud in the last presidential election.” [Salon, 11/8/22]
Katherine Riley Was Recorded Giving A Training Session To Stand Up Michigan Claiming That A Physical Canvass Would Reveal Election Fraud. “In a training session held earlier this year for Stand Up Michigan — a conservative grassroots group that grew out of opposition to Michigan's COVID-19 policies — Riley discussed her claims that a physical canvass would expose election fraud and put pressure on the state legislature to act. "There are still ways for us to really get in there and not allow some of this type of stuff to happen," she told the group in an audio recording obtained by Salon. "But so when we gather this data, we're looking to get Kristina Karamo" — the Republican nominee for Michigan secretary of state — "and have people that will prosecute. So if we don't have that information, what are they going to prosecute, you know?" Karamo is a prominent election denier who also signed onto a lawsuit before the Michigan Supreme Court challenging the 2020 election. Riley ran the training on behalf of the Election Integrity Force, a nonprofit that "is spearheading the physical canvass of registered, suspicious addresses associated with the Michigan Qualified Voter File," according to its website. The "QVF canvass," as EIF calls it, is "part of the national movement to identify phantom voter addresses and fraudulent votes." [Salon, 11/8/22]
Katherine Riley Hosted The Training For Election Integrity Force, Which Sought To Decertify Biden’s Win And Wanted “Physical Canvass” Of Addresses On The Voter Rolls. “Riley ran the training on behalf of the Election Integrity Force, a nonprofit that "is spearheading the physical canvass of registered, suspicious addresses associated with the Michigan Qualified Voter File," according to its website. The "QVF canvass," as EIF calls it, is "part of the national movement to identify phantom voter addresses and fraudulent votes. There is no evidence that "phantom voters" or fraudulent votes occur above a minuscule and irrelevant level in Michigan or any other state. Since 2020, EIF has raised skepticism about the legitimacy of the presidential election and also attempted to decertify President Biden's win in Michigan by suing the governor and secretary of state, according to the New York Times. EIF also challenged the ballots of about 22,000 people during the August 2022 Michigan primary." [Salon, 11/8/22]
Katherine Riley Allegedly Spread Election Conspiracies, Including Claims Of “Lost Votes” And “Ghost Votes” And Spoke About Election Integrity Force’s Role In Exposing Election Fraud. “Since 2020, EIF has raised skepticism about the legitimacy of the presidential election and also attempted to decertify President Biden's win in Michigan by suing the governor and secretary of state, according to the New York Times. EIF also challenged the ballots of about 22,000 people during the August 2022 Michigan primary. Riley has continued to support the group's efforts and echoed similar election conspiracy theories. Speaking at Stand Up Michigan events, she has talked about EIF's efforts in exposing election fraud. Patrick Colbeck, a former member of the Michigan state Senate, has appeared beside Riley at several such meetings, and has encouraged poll workers and partisan observers to ignore election rules. In a Stand Up Michigan meeting in late 2021, Riley explained she was working with Colbeck on canvassing precincts to identify "lost votes" (which refers to votes cast but apparently not recorded) and "ghost votes" (when an individual votes from an address where they do not live). "We're looking to clean up the qualified voter roll because — I can go into this whole thing, but it's a mess," Riley said. In another meeting, Riley claimed that the group's limited canvass of 349 voters in Macomb County revealed 39 anomalies (a purported rate of 18%), which Colbeck claimed would extrapolate to hundreds of thousands of votes across Michigan.” [Salon, 11/8/22]
August 2022: Katherine Riley Voted To Certify The Results Of The Primary. “The Wayne County Board of Canvassers voted unanimously to certify August election results in Michigan's largest county. The four-member, bipartisan board met Tuesday to approve the results from the primary, the last of Michigan's 83 counties to certify. It was the first certification of a statewide election since November 2020, when the board's meeting to certify the election devolved into chaos. [...] All four of the canvassers for Wayne County are new appointees since the 2020 election, with the board now made up of Democrats Richard Preuss and James Britton, and Republicans Robert Boyd and Katherine Riley.” [Detroit News, 8/17/22]
November 2022: Katherine Riley Voted To Certify The Election Results. “The November election results for Detroit and Wayne County were unanimously approved Tuesday by the bipartisan Wayne County of Board of Canvassers. The vote effectively means the canvassers didn't view Detroit's election results as problematic. Two years ago, some Republican critics accused the city of running a corrupt election as the absentee vote counts were overseen by the state's former longtime elections director. [...] All four of the canvassers for Wayne County are new appointees since the 2020 election, with the board now made up of Democrats Richard Preuss and James Britton, and Republicans Robert Boyd and Katherine Riley.” [Detroit News, 11/23/22]