Detroit City Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero is going to court to dispute a late fee that caused her to be disqualified from appearing on the 2025 ballot.
Santiago-Romero filed a complaint in Wayne County Circuit Court on Thursday against City Clerk Janice Winfrey and the Detroit Election Commission. She is represented by Attorney Mark Brewer, former head of the Michigan Democratic Party, and joined by Joel Reyes-Klann, a supporter who signed Santiago-Romero’s nominating petition.
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“It’s a shame that we have to go this far, but we have the facts on our side and will take this to court,” Santiago-Romero, who represents Southwest Detroit’s District 6, said in a statement. “We expect to win in court and give voters the opportunity to decide who they want as their next city council member.”
Winfrey could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.
The lawsuit, which was shared with BridgeDetroit, seeks a temporary restraining order preventing the primary ballot from being set without Santiago-Romero or a court order to certify her for the ballot. Her campaign argues Winfrey “exceeded her authority,” failed to properly notify the campaign by registered mail and harmed voters by excluding Santiago-Romero from the ballot.
The conflict hinges on whether Santiago-Romero should be fined for filing a late campaign finance report that her campaign says came in on time. Santiago-Romero argues the $250 fine shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Santiago-Romero claims her campaign filed a quarterly financial report on Oct. 25 as required by law and received confirmation from the Wayne County Clerk that the report was received. Three days later, her campaign was notified that they missed an Oct. 25 deadline to file the report.
The campaign claims it resubmitted an identical copy of the report on Nov. 8 “out of an abundance of caution. They were informed on Nov. 11 by the Wayne County Clerk’s Office that the report was labeled incorrectly and was deleted. The campaign received a $250 fine a day later.
The report was mistakenly labeled as a pre-general election statement instead of a quarterly statement. It took until Nov. 29 for Santiago-Romero’s campaign to correct the error.
Candidates must sign an affidavit of identity when turning in nominating petitions needed to run for office. The affidavit confirms the candidate is legally qualified and doesn’t owe any fees under the Michigan campaign finance act.
Santiago-Romero said she didn’t know she had an unpaid fine, so she signed the affidavit on April 17, believing it was correct. Santiago-Romero received a letter from the city of Detroit
Clerk’s Office on April 21 notifying her that she has been disqualified from the ballot due to the unpaid $250.
Her campaign is holding a press conference at Clark Park on Friday. She’s also encouraged supporters to organize against her “undemocratic” removal from the ballot.
Working Families Party Michigan State Director Branden Snyder railed against the disqualification in a statement, arguing that voters who signed nominating petitions for Santiago-Romero “risk being disenfranchised and prevented from participating in a critical election to decide the future of Detroit neighborhoods.”
“Brave workers at the Wayne County Elections Division withstood mobs of white supremacists in 2020 to uphold the voting rights of Detroiters,” Snyder said. “But now, the Clerk’s office is endangering the right of Detroit District 6 voters to choose their candidate. This is a case of human error at the Wayne County Clerk’s office that could erode our community’s trust in electoral systems at a critical time.”
If Santiago-Romero is unsuccessful, she plans to mount a write-in campaign. State Rep. Tyrone Carter and Anita Martin submitted petition signatures to run for the seat.