LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan-based pastor who led a prayer at Donald Trump's second inauguration is advising people not to cast absentee ballots in the November election and is calling on the Republican president to declare a national emergency to allow for only a single day of voting.

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell made the comments while speaking at a church in Mississippi on Sept. 26. He then shared a video of his remarks on social media on Sept. 27, three days after absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election became available to Michigan voters.

"Do not vote absentee," Sewell said at Evangel Temple Church in Meridian, Mississippi. "They are cheating. Do not vote absentee.

"If you vote absentee, they’re going to switch your vote.”

No such allegation of systemic vote switching has been proven in Michigan. And a Republican-led state Senate committee investigated similar voter fraud claims focused on the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden by 154,000 votes, and upheld the result.

Republicans have repeatedly given Sewell, who leads 180 Church on Detroit's west side, prominent speaking slots at events over the last two years. In addition to praying at Trump's January 2025 inauguration, Sewell gave the invocation at the Michigan Republican Party convention in February 2025 and spoke on the opening day of the Michigan House's 2025-26 term in January 2025.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers named Sewell to his "Faith Leaders for Mike Rogers” coalition senior leadership team in November 2025.

Sewell campaigned with Rogers during the White Lake Township Republican's unsuccessful 2024 bid for the Senate. Both Rogers and Trump stumped for votes at Sewell's church in 2024.

Rogers is locked in a competitive Senate race with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed of Ann Arbor this fall. Unlike Sewell, Rogers has encouraged his supporters to vote absentee in order to get their ballots in ahead of Election Day.

"Vote now. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your neighbors and make sure they vote, too," Rogers' campaign posted on social media last week. "We have a state to save!"

In his speech in Mississippi, Sewell also encourage people to fast and pray for Trump to declare a national emergency ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

"We want our president to declare a national emergency: One day, paper ballot, ID, hand-counted," Sewell said. "Come on now. We’ve got to fast and pray for that.”

When asked about Sewell's claims, the Rogers campaign on Sept. 28 pointed to recent comments that Rogers has made encouraging voters to cast absentee ballots.

"Vote now," Rogers said on the day absentee ballots became available. "Grab your friends, grab your family, grab your neighbors, and make sure they vote, too."

In an interview, Sewell said he's advocating for everyone to support a national emergency declaration, claiming that votes are being switched.

“This has to happen," Sewell said. "It must happen.”

On Rogers urging people to vote absentee, Sewell said he believes that both Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson and Rogers will be "cheated" into office. Sewell said Rogers will win as a way of encouraging people not to worry about the election process.

"A governor has more power than a senator in your everyday life," Sewell said.

Chris Thomas, Michigan's former elections director, said it's hard to imagine a president would declare a national emergency to limit how people can vote in an election.

The U.S. Supreme Court would likely not tolerate such a maneuver, and it would "challenge the foundation of the country" and could be "one hell of an impeachable offense," said Thomas, who worked under three Republican secretaries of state and one Democrat over a span of 36 years.

Thomas, who has worked with Detroit officials on administering elections in recent years, said no one has come to them with evidence of vote switching occurring in Michigan's largest city.

Sewell has appeared two times before the Republican-led House elections committee this term, said Rep. Stephen Wooden, D-Grand Rapids, the top Democrat on the panel.

Wooden noted that Michigan voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution in 2018 to allow for no-reason absentee voting. Then, four years later, Michigan voters approved a proposal to allow for early, in-person voting for nine days before each election. Both would go against the national emergency idea that Sewell is floating for a single day of voting.

"We have the constitutional right in our state constitution to vote by mail," Wooden said.

Sewell's plan would disenfranchise elderly voters, disabled voters and people who have work schedules that don't allow them to cast a ballot on Election Day, Wooden said.

Republicans are concerned about losing the upcoming election, amid rising prices and the ongoing war in Iran, Wooden argued.

In addition to Rogers, Sewell has also been a campaign surrogate for U.S. Rep. John James, a Shelby Township Republican who is trying to become Michigan's first Black governor.

James' Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, seized upon Sewell's comments about casting absentee ballots before Election Day. She called him "an election denier."

"It's appalling that one of my opponent’s top campaign surrogates is spewing misinformation and voter suppression rhetoric about Michiganders' right to vote from home — a state constitutional right that Michigan citizens themselves voted to enact and have embraced in record numbers for several elections," Benson said Sept. 28 in a statement. "Absentee voting is safe, secure, and accessible, and it's shameful that anyone seeking to be governor would align himself with rhetoric that undermines the freedom to vote."

“Voters in this state are upset," Wooden said. "They are rightfully upset. And I think they are going to make their voices heard on Election Day through our free and fair elections.”

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