{"id":1651843,"date":"2022-09-21T16:32:57","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T20:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1651843"},"modified":"2022-09-21T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T20:36:10","slug":"complaint-michigan-secretary-of-state-broke-law-by-outsourcing-voter-roll-cleanup-to-left-wing-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/complaint-michigan-secretary-of-state-broke-law-by-outsourcing-voter-roll-cleanup-to-left-wing-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaint: Michigan Secretary Of State Broke Law By Outsourcing Voter Roll Cleanup To Left-Wing Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcomplaint-michigan-secretary-of-state-broke-law-by-outsourcing-voter-roll-cleanup-to-left-wing-group%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1651843&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>The Thomas More Society has filed a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thomasmoresociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/MI-HAVA-Final-Complaint-with-Exs-9-21-22.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">complaint<\/a> with Michigan\u2019s Bureau of Elections\u00a0against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for violating federal law in contracting with the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) to clean her state\u2019s voter rolls. <\/p>\n<p>The complaint \u2014 filed on behalf of Pure Integrity Michigan Elections \u2014 argues that Benson violated the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) by giving ERIC access to Michigan\u2019s Qualified Voter File, a secure voter list used by the bureau of elections and more than 1,500 election clerks. HAVA requires each secretary of state to maintain and clean voter rolls without outside assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder the Help America Vote Act, maintaining state voter registration is seen as such a core governmental purpose that Congress deemed that it cannot be delegated to any other organization, including Electronic Registration Information Center,\u201d Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thomasmoresociety.org\/voters-accuse-michigan-secretary-of-state-for-violating-federal-election-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cThe Help America Vote Act requires the Michigan secretary of state fulfill her constitutional duty and maintain the Qualified Voter File by herself, even if she does so badly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HAVA does not allow states to share voter data with third parties, but Benson\u2019s agreement with ERIC requires her to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Michigan\u2019s current agreement with Electronic Registration Information Center, the secretary of state must transmit all voter data to the center, as well as licensing and identification records from the motor vehicle department,\u201d\u00a0Kaardal\u00a0explained.\u00a0\u201cThat clearly violates the Help America Vote Act and should be ceased immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/11\/democratic-operatives-control-voter-rolls-in-31-states-report-shows\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously reported<\/a>, ERIC is an interstate voter-roll management system run by Democratic operatives. It was sold to states as an easy solution to clean their voter rolls, but inflates them instead, thereby driving Democrat voter turnout. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia are\u00a0listed as <a href=\"https:\/\/ericstates.org\/who-we-are\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">members<\/a>\u00a0of ERIC. Louisiana\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sos.la.gov\/OurOffice\/PublishedDocuments\/FINAL%20VERSION-1.27.22%20ERIC%20PR.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recently announced<\/a>\u00a0its withdrawal from the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A March 2022\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/audgen.michigan.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/r231023521-4999.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">audit<\/a>\u00a0by Michigan\u2019s auditor general found that the state\u2019s bureau of elections had failed to clean its voter rolls, despite being a member of ERIC since 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Benson has also been under\u00a0scrutiny. In June 2020, the Michigan Freedom Fund\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/michigan-government\/lawsuit-jocelyn-benson-allowing-suspiciously-high-voter-registration-rates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sued Benson and 16 county clerks<\/a>\u00a0for neglecting to maintain Michigan\u2019s voter rolls. In September 2020, Benson padded Michigan\u2019s voter rolls herself by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/content.govdelivery.com\/accounts\/MISOS\/bulletins\/2a4effc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sending out automatic voter registration forms<\/a>\u00a0to all eligible citizens. As a result of the mailer, 114,000 people were added to the rolls. Most recently, Benson <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/26\/judge-denies-michigan-secretary-of-states-motion-to-dismiss-lawsuit-removing-26000-dead-registrants-from-voter-rolls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tried to dismiss<\/a> a lawsuit removing 26,000 dead registrants from Michigan\u2019s voter rolls.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Victoria Marshall is a staff writer at The Federalist. Her writing has been featured in the New York Post, National Review, and Townhall. She graduated from Hillsdale College in May 2021 with a major in politics and a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @vemrshll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Thomas More Society has filed a\u00a0complaint with Michigan\u2019s Bureau of Elections\u00a0against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for violating federal law in contracting with the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1130,"featured_media":1651848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1651843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1651848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}