Republicans contend recent guidance from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson “will undermine protections for absentee voters” by failing to require proper verification.
The Republican National Committee and Michigan GOP filed suit against Benson and Michigan Director of Elections Jonathan Brater on Tuesday in the Michigan Court of Claims over incomplete guidelines from the Secretary of State’s office to local election officials regarding absentee voter signature verification.
“Recent guidance issued by the Michigan Secretary of State will undermine protections for absentee voters, leading to improper handling and counting of absentee ballots,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We are suing to protect absentee ballot safeguards in Michigan which will help make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in the Wolverine State.”
The guidance, issued in February 2024, does not fully inform clerks of Michigan law that requires them to date each absent voter envelope, and include “a statement by the city or township clerk that the absent voter ballot is approved for tabulation” once the voter’s signature is verified.
If it’s not, “the clerk shall reject the absent voter ballot and provide the elector with notice of the opportunity to cure the deficiency,” according to the law.
“Plaintiffs recently learned that thousands of absent voter ballots were apparently tabulated during the August 6, 2024 primary election in Warren, Michigan, despite the complete absence of a statement by the clerk on the corresponding return envelope that the absent voter ballot is approved for tabulation as expressly required under MCL 168.765(2),” the RNC lawsuit reads.
“AV Ballot Processing Guidance fails to mention the clerk’s statement of approval (i.e., signature verification confirmation) as required under subsection 765(2), yet reads as if it contains the entire universe of requirements as to the information that a clerk must write or stamp on an absentee ballot return envelope such that the corresponding ballot can be tabulated,” RNC attorneys wrote. “As a result, the AV Ballot Processing Guidance is fatally incomplete.”
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
MORE NEWS: Mt. Pleasant Indivisible protest draws 40 — read ‘banned’ books, demand taxpayer funding for PBS
The lawsuit aims to block Benson’s ballot-processing guidance, and is requesting the judge compel her office to issue new, clarified guidance before the coming election.
Republicans want the court to ensure clerks comply with the requirements under Michigan law because it “preserves purity of elections and guards against abuses,” lawyers told the Detroit Free Press.
“Our Secretary of State is actively interfering in Michigan’s elections, disregarding the very laws she’s supposed to enforce,” Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra said. “The Michigan Republican Party will never stop fighting for the safety and security of our elections, so every single Michigander can feel confident in their vote, no matter how they choose to exercise that right.”
Benson spokeswoman Angela Benander told the Free Press the “lawsuit could have been an email.”
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
“This is not about the law, our processes or election administration,” she opined. “It’s about getting a headline that causes voters to doubt the integrity of our election processes. It’s an abuse of our judicial system and a waste of all our time.”
About 1.8 million absentee ballots were cast in the 2022 midterms, while that figure was over 3 million in 2020.
Tuesday’s lawsuit is the latest from the NRC in Michigan focused on improving election integrity and partisanship at the Secretary of State. Others center on Democrat poll workers outnumbering Republicans in Detroit 7-to-1, and the Secretary of State’s arrangement with the Biden-Harris administration to utilize SBA and Department of Veterans Affairs sites in Democratic areas for voter registration efforts.
Still other legal efforts challenge Benson to purge hundreds of thousands of dead and ineligible voters from the state’s bloated voter rolls, which include 105% of the state’s voting age population, and question the Secretary of State’s efforts to implement a ban on local officials investigating fraud during recounts for 2024, despite the new law’s effective date in 2025.
Another lawsuit from 130 Michigan voters claims Benson’s “unlawful guidance for elections” and how the Secretary of State implemented Proposal 2 reforms approved by voters in 2022, has made it “impossible for the State of Michigan to guarantee all legally eligible Michigan voters a free, fair, lawful, secure, and transparent election process in the 2024 elections.”