Photo: Alamy
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson suffered a legal blow at the hands of election integrity proponents after a court victory this month. According to a report from Just the News, Benson had implemented a few guidelines and restrictions on poll challengers and political parties that the suit claimed violated voters’ rights.
Per the outlet:
“Benson, per the Republican National Committee, had imposed restrictions on poll challengers, including a new credential form, an “artificial deadline” for appointing them, and limiting the poll workers with whom the challengers may communicate.”
The Republican National Committee filed the suit at the beginning of October and cited the following in their case:
“While the Michigan Election Law expressly provides the requirements for political parties to appoint those election challengers, as well as the rights and duties of those election challengers, Plaintiffs recently learned that Defendants Secretary Benson and Director Brater unilaterally issued a publication, defined below as the ‘2022 Election Challenger Instructions,’ directing local election officials to enforce a new set of rules pertaining to the appointment of election challengers, as well as the rights and duties of those elections challengers.”
They further alleged that the new rules were “directly inconsistent with the plain language of the Michigan Election Law, prior guidance issued by the Secretary of State, and current common practice.”
Essentially, the lawsuit asked that Benson’s restrictions be declared “inconsistent with Michigan Election Law,” which would make them “unenforceable.”
Interestingly, the secretary of state has also been accused of taking money from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the 2020 presidential election, as previously reported by RSBN. That lawsuit, brought forth in early 2022 by the Thomas More Society, alleged that Benson reportedly took money in exchange for allegedly nudging election results in a favorable direction for Joe Biden.
Michigan has been rife with allegations of election fraud and irregularities in the wake of the chaos of the 2020 presidential election. For example, a Michigan man was recently charged with two felonies after plugging a flash drive into a computer at Township Precinct 8, reportedly to access sensitive information in the Electronic Poll Book, per RSBN.