Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is officially under subpoena after stonewalling Michigan lawmakers for five months.
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee voted to compel Benson and the Michigan Department of State to hand over election training materials her office has repeatedly refused to release, materials routinely provided to local clerks across Michigan.
Oversight Chair Rep. Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay Township, led the motion to issue the subpoena after Benson failed to comply with an April 14 deadline. Rep. Rachelle Smit, R-Martin, chair of the House Election Integrity Committee, originally requested the documents.
“The people’s elected representatives have a responsibility to ensure our elections are administered properly, which makes the Secretary of State’s effort to disguise vital information on our election administration from us worrying,” DeBoyer said. “Michigan’s departments have been allowed to operate without oversight or standards for years. That’s led to terrible results for the people of this state, and it must end now.”
Smit first brought the issue before the Oversight Committee in early March, detailing how her office had been stonewalled in attempts to access the Bureau of Elections’ E-Learning Portal. That portal trains election clerks, but what’s in those materials remains unknown.
“We’re not talking about state secrets here; these are just basic election training materials regularly provided to Michigan clerks,” said Smit. “Secretary Benson had five months and ample opportunities to be transparent and work with us. She refused, leaving us with no choice but to issue a subpoena.”
Smit raised serious concerns that the materials may mirror prior unlawful directives issued by Benson. In recent years, Michigan courts have repeatedly struck down her rules for violating state election law.
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DeBoyer echoed the concern. “Just one week after admitting serious failures in our election system, the Secretary of State continues to hide from oversight and refuses to discuss the department’s job performance in public,” DeBoyer said. “That’s not good governing, and we can’t let it continue.”
He also emphasized the broader implications of transparency: “From the beginning of this term, we have made it clear that we are committed to ensuring transparency and accountability to the people of Michigan in all facets of our government—and that includes our electoral process. The people and their elected representatives should not be kept in the dark on these matters, and today’s move to approve a subpoena will help correct that.”
Despite the formal passage of the subpoena, Benson’s office has yet to respond or justify withholding the materials.