RNC Sues MI Dem Secretary Of State Over Guidance For Absentee Ballots

The Republican National Committee, along with the Michigan Republican Party, filed a lawsuit against the battleground state’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Tuesday, alleging the Democrat violated state law over guidance she issued for absentee ballots.

The RNC’s lawsuit alleges that Benson issued guidance contradictory to Michigan law that requires absentee ballot stub numbers to match the numbers in the poll book and on the ballot return envelope to be counted, Just The News reported. RNC election integrity staff said that they saw some absentee ballots being counted with missing stub numbers during Michigan’s August primary elections, the party said.

The lawsuit accuses Benson of instructing “local clerks and election inspectors to process and tabulate absent voter ballots where the stub is missing or the number on the stub does not match the number in the poll book or on the ballot return envelope as ‘challenged’ ballots rather than reject them as required by Michigan law.”

“Secretary Benson continues to expose Michigan’s elections to cheating and fraud, forcing Republicans to file suit again to protect the vote for Michiganders,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We will continue our efforts to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Michigan – and around the country – through November 5.”

Absentee ballots will start being mailed to voters in the Great Lakes State this week. Christopher Thomas, a former state elections director, told Michigan Public that he expects around 40% of Michigan voters to participate in this year’s election through mail-in voting, ballot drop box, or early in-person voting.

Benson faces two other election-related lawsuits filed by the RNC earlier this year. In March, the RNC sued the Secretary of State, alleging she has not maintained accurate voter rolls. A second lawsuit filed in March accused Benson of instructing local election officials to presume a voter’s signature was legitimate.

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“Suing our Secretary of State to enforce the law she swore an oath to uphold is becoming commonplace in Michigan, because the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee are committed to ensuring the integrity and security of our elections,” said Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra, who was the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands under President Donald Trump. “Ballot number matching is a law on the books because it’s a simple safeguard to protect Michiganders’ fundamental right to vote. While Benson continues to circumvent our election laws for her own political agenda, we will fight tirelessly so Michiganders have no doubts when they start to go to the polls.”

Michigan is a vital battleground state in the upcoming election and was one of the states whose results in 2020 were heavily scrutinized by Trump and many of his supporters. Biden took the state in the 2020 election after Trump had won Michigan over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Currently, the RealClearPolitics polling average in Michigan shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by just 1.8 points.

Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.