Election guidance from Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson allows folks who have never lived in the state to cast ballots in 2024, and Republicans are suing to force her to comply with the constitution.
Chapter 7 of Benson’s Election Officials Manual states, “A United States citizen who has never resided in the United States but who has a parent, legal guardian, or spouse who was last domiciled in Michigan is eligible to vote in Michigan as long as the citizen has not registered or voted in another state.”
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the Republican National Committee, Michigan Republican Party and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry argue that guidance conflicts with Article 2 of the Michigan Constitution: “Every citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 21 years, who has resided in this state six months, and who meets the requirements of local residence provided by law, shall be an elector and qualified to vote in any election except otherwise provided in this constitution.”
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“Jocelyn Benson, despite what she may think, cannot ignore Michigan’s electoral laws,” Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hokestra told CBS News in a statement. “Citizens who have never lived in the state of Michigan shouldn’t vote in Michigan. That’s common sense.”
The lawsuit mirrors another filed the same day against the North Carolina State Board of Elections on the same issue, as both states require residency to vote.
“North Carolinians and Michiganders should not have their votes canceled by those who’ve never lived in the state in the first place – plain and simple. This is illegal and we will stop it,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “While Democrats want an election system that disregards the law, we are committed to election integrity across the country.”
The RNC notes the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act allows members of the military and other American citizens living outside the country to register and vote in federal elections in the state they previously resided, but argues the provision doesn’t extend to individuals who were never state residents.
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“Counting ballots of ineligible overseas voters who never resided in Michigan will result in an inaccurate tally of votes. Moreover, overseas voters overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates,” according to the lawsuit. “This counting the ballots of ineligible overseas voters will disproportionally harm Republican candidates and undermine the Republican candidates’ rights to a fair and accurate electoral count. It will also dilute the lawful votes cast by Plaintiffs’ members and voters.”
For Berry, Benson’s guidance forces her to choose between following the Michigan Constitution and federal law, or illegal guidance from the state’s top election official, the lawsuit alleges.
The issue isn’t hypothetical.
“Michigan election officials have registered persons to vote who have never resided in Michigan and have allowed them to vote in Michigan’s state and federal elections,” according to the lawsuit.
“Democrats know they can’t win with a secure election, so they want ineligible voters to influence critical battleground states and dilute legal votes,” RNC election integrity spokeswoman Claire Zunk wrote to The Daily Signal. “We are fighting, and will stop these attacks on election integrity.”
Angela Benander described the lawsuit as “disappointing” in an email to the news site.
“This time, they’re targeting the voting rights of United States citizens and their families living overseas – including the children of active-duty military service members who are making sacrifices for our freedoms,” she wrote. “It’s disappointing to see a national political party try to disenfranchise our military families, but at this point, unfortunately, it’s not surprising.”
“This is not a legitimate legal concern, just the latest in the RNC’s PR campaign to spread unfounded distrust in the integrity of our elections,” Benander wrote. “We will continue our work to ensure that every voter eligible under the law can make their voices heard in this election.”
Polling on the presidential race shows Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump essentially tied in both Michigan and North Carolina. Michigan counts for 15 electoral votes, while it’s 16 for North Carolina.
The most recent Michigan poll of 950 likely voters conducted by Emerson College Oct. 5-8 found each candidate with 50%, while another from the same pollster and same time frame found Trump with 50% to Harris’ 49% among 1,000 likely North Carolina voters.
“Did you know that there are 6.5 million voters abroad in any given election year, but that their rate of voting is ridiculously low?” @IAmPoliticsGirl said in a video pinned to the Democrats Abroad X page.
President Joe Biden’s vote margin over Trump in 2020 was a little over 7 million.
“We could change every single election in this country based on overseas voters and expats alone,” she said. “But most people who can vote from abroad don’t vote, because they think they can’t or that it’s too hard.”
The lawsuit is the sixth the RNC has filed against Benson in the current election cycle, with others focused on signature verification, the state’s bloated voter rolls, which are currently at 105% of the voting age population, as well as Democrat poll workers outnumbering Republicans in Detroit 7-to-1, and Benson’s arrangement with the Biden-Harris administration to utilize Small Business Administration and Veterans Affairs sites in Democratic areas for voter registration efforts.
Still other RNC legal efforts in Michigan question Benson’s efforts to implement a ban on local officials investigating fraud during recounts for 2024, despite the new law’s effective date in 2025.
Last month, Benson issued new guidance in response to an RNC lawsuit that alleged she failed to properly enforce absentee ballot verification laws.
The change was followed by an Oct. 3 ruling from Michigan Judge Brock Swartzle that required Benson to clarify incomplete election guidance regarding the processing of mail-in ballots without stub numbers of ballot matching numbers.
Since 2020, courts have forced Benson on at least six occasions to enforce state election laws, according to The Daily Caller.