Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is doing everything she can to defeat federal legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

In her second statement in as many days, Benson bemoaned the proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act in Congress as “a trick” designed to “block millions of American citizens from casting their ballot in future elections.”

“This bill is not about election security,” she claimed. “It’s a trick.”

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The SAVE Act “and proposals like it are not the way forward,” Benson insisted. “Every Michigan voter should evaluate these bills with eyes wide open, with a clear understanding of what’s really at stake.”

The SAVE Act would set federal standards for voter registration requiring residents to prove their citizenship with a birth certificate or passport, but it also directs each state to “establish a process under which an applicant can provide such additional documentation” to vote if their photo ID doesn’t match a birth certificate.

“The legislation provides a myriad ways for people to prove citizenship and explicitly directs States to establish a process for individuals to register to vote if there are discrepancies in their proof of citizenship documents due to something like a name change,” SAVE Act sponsor U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said in a statement.

Other provisions of the act, House Resolution. 22, would require states to remove noncitizens from voter registrations, and impose civil and criminal penalties on election officials who register an applicant to vote without proof of citizenship.

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Benson has thus far resisted cleaning up the state’s voting rolls.

Benson, a former hate crimes investigator for the disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center who is running her own election to replace Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2026, contends the requirement to prove citizenship in person means “voters would lose their ability to register to vote by mail or online, overwhelming local election clerks and making elections much harder and more expensive to administer.”

She claims without evidence tribal citizens, low-income earners, rural residents, Black Michiganders, military members, and others would be disenfranchised by the citizenship requirement, as would married women whose names on their birth certificate don’t match their adopted last names.

Election experts with the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, meanwhile, note that married women regularly must provide both birth certificates and marriage licenses to change their names on Social Security documents, bank accounts and other documents, WRAL reports.

Cleta Mitchell, an attorney and former lawmaker who founded the coalition, told the news site in a statement the process “is a pain,” but “millions of women do it every day.”

Roy first introduced the SAVE Act in May 2024, and the measure passed the lower chamber in July with the support of 216 Republicans and five Democrats, Axios reports.

Roy reintroduced the legislation for the 119^th Congress in January, and it’s expected to move to the House floor in the coming days.

If approved, the SAVE Act would need seven Democrats to vote with all Republicans in the Senate to overcome a filibuster and move to President Donald Trump, and support in the upper chamber remains unclear.

Regardless of how the legislation progresses in Congress, Benson is leveraging the bill’s publicity to promote forthcoming legislation in the Michigan Legislature she claims will help improve election integrity.

The holes in Michigan’s election system allowed at least one Chinese national, a student at the University of Michigan, to cast an illegal ballot last year, and the vote was counted in the 2024 tally because there is no way to retrieve it.

Benson is now working with Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, and Rep. Stephen Wooden, D-Grand Rapids, to introduce the Michigan Election Security Act, “a plan to protect Michiganders’ right to cast a ballot by improving current laws and codifying existing procedures.

Benson contends the legislation will “provide additional tools to help ensure eligible voters can easily register and vote, while helping election officials more effectively identify and remove ineligible voter registrations.”

For years, Benson has adamantly opposed any effort to vet the state’s bloated voter rolls, despite the number of registrations swelling to 105% of the state’s voting age population.

She’s also worked with Democrats in the legislature to vastly expand absentee and early voting, while peeling back voting safeguards that former Secretary of State and current Sen. Ruth Johnson insists are critical for election integrity.

Michigan Republicans are attempting to improve the situation with Michigan House Joint Resolution B, introduced earlier this month, to require anyone registering to vote after Dec. 18, 2026 to provide proof of citizenship, and mandate voters present a photo ID when voting in person.

HJR B, a constitutional amendment, would require absentee voters to provide a copy of their photo ID, driver’s license number, state personal identification number, or the last four digits of their social security number. The proposal would further create a means for voters without ID to cast a provisional ballot that would still be counted if they prove citizenship within six days after an election.

Citizens experiencing hardship would get free IDs.

“This is a no-brainer,” HJR B sponsor House Majority Floor Leader Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, said in a statement. “And people should have to show ID when voting to prove that they are who they say they are. That’s just common sense.”

Of course, Benson opposes HJR B, as well, alleging the effort is a “cover to gut Michiganders’ voting rights in our state constitution,” ignoring the fact that the legislation would require the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers or a majority of voters.

According to a recent Rasmussen poll: “…77% of U.S. likely voters believe that requiring photo ID to vote is a reasonable measure to protect the integrity of elections – up from 74% in 2021. Just 17% disagree.”