Judge: Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson Violated Election Law in Early October
It was clear from the outset that Secretary of State Benson had violated Election Laws
LANSING, MICH—The Michigan Republican Party won a decisive victory in Court this week after Judge Christopher Murray ruled that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s guidance issued to Michigan clerks in early October to assume the accuracy of absentee ballot signatures violated Election Law.
The decision was a victory for not just the Michigan Republican Party, who is advocating for common sense election reform that protects the vote of every eligible American citizen, but a victory for every Michigan voter. Critical to a Democracy is a safe and secure election process.
“It was clear from the outset that the Secretary of State had violated Election Law by unilaterally directing local clerks to ignore their statutory obligation to compare absentee ballot signatures,” said Ted Goodman, Communications Director of the Michigan Republican Party. “Rather than follow the statute’s safeguards which require clerks to verify absentee ballot signatures against the state’s database, the Secretary of State directed clerks to instead assume that every signature on an absentee ballot was valid without checking them against that database.”
The Michigan Republican Party is pleased that the Court agreed that the Court agreed that the Secretary of State cannot direct local clerks to ignore the Michigan Election Law, but also disappointed that clerks were told not to truly verify absentee ballot signatures for the 2020 election.
MRP is calling on the Secretary of State to undertake a statistical sampling of absentee ballots to determine the impact of the Secretary of State’s unlawful guidance.
Send all media inquiries to Ted Goodman, communications director, at tgoodman@migop.org.