Why Lawmakers for This Battleground State are Seeking Federal Election Monitors

Michigan state lawmakers asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to send election monitors for the state’s 2026 contests, noting that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is running for governor in an election she is supervising. 

The letter from 22 Republican state legislators to Bondi also points out the various election controversies Benson has been involved in, which includes resisting efforts to remove the names of dead people from voter registration lists and declining to cooperate with federal inquiries about voter registration lists.

“Our concerns center on Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who, as the state’s chief election official, will oversee the 2026 elections while simultaneously appearing on the ballot as a candidate for governor,” said the Nov. 13 letter, with signers that included state Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt and state Sen. Ruth Johnson, a former Republican secretary of state.

“This creates an inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest, as Secretary Benson will be administering an election in which she has a direct personal stake in the outcome,” the lawmakers’ letter to Bondi continued.  “Such a situation risks compromising the impartiality required for fair election oversight and demands external federal scrutiny to maintain public trust.”

The blue-leaning Michigan has been a hotly contested state in national elections, as President Donald Trump carried the state in 2016 and 2024, but lost it in 2020.

Benson’s office did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story. However, she posted on X it is “reckless” to raise questions about the safety of Michigan elections, though without directly noting the request for election monitors. 

“Our elections are some of the safest and most secure in the country because the clerks, poll workers, and volunteers — who represent the entire political spectrum — ensure the voices and the votes of the people are heard and upheld,” Benson said in the post. “Suggesting anything else is a reckless attempt to distract from the real issues facing people of Michigan: making sure they can afford to live and thrive in Michigan.”

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the request to Bondi for election monitors.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division dispatched election monitors to both California and New Jersey for elections earlier this month for elections. 

In September, the Justice Department sued six states–including Michigan–for failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists upon request. States are required to keep updated voter registration lists under both the 1993 National Voter Registration Act and the 2002 Help America Vote Act. 

The Michigan legislators letter signed by nine state senators and 13 state representatives noted the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Michigan in their letter. 

“Further eroding confidence is Secretary Benson’s persistent failure to maintain accurate voter rolls, including her refusal to remove deceased registrants as required by federal law,” the GOP legislators said in the letter to Bondi. “Audits and investigations have revealed more than 25,000 deceased individuals remaining on Michigan’s voter rolls, prompting ongoing litigation that has escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The Public Interest Legal Foundation, a watchdog group, identified the likely dead individuals still registered to vote in Michigan. The group sued Benson’s office to force an investigation of the voter rolls, citing the federal laws. 

The legislators also noted that even Benson’s office confirmed that at least 16 noncitizens voted in Michigan in the 2024 election. 

“While her office downplayed this as ‘rare,’ it underscores systemic failures in citizenship verification processes during voter registration and ballot issuance, failures that could recur without intervention,” the letter says. 

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