{"id":2316774,"date":"2024-07-31T14:09:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T18:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mi-judge-shuts-down-lax-ballot-signature-guidance-for-good\/"},"modified":"2024-07-31T14:12:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T18:12:46","slug":"mi-judge-shuts-down-lax-ballot-signature-guidance-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mi-judge-shuts-down-lax-ballot-signature-guidance-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"MI Judge Shuts Down Lax Ballot Signature Guidance For Good"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fmi-judge-shuts-down-lax-ballot-signature-guidance-for-good%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=2316774&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--><p>A\u2062 Michigan Court\u200d of Claims judge, Christopher \u200dP. Yates, ruled\u2064 that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson\u2019s \u200dguidance on absentee ballot \u200dsignature verification \u2064violated the state constitution. \u2062The guidance manual, issued in December \u20622023, included an &#8220;initial presumption of validity&#8221; for voter signatures, which Yates deemed incompatible with Michigan \u2062law. Although Benson&#8217;s\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-federal-investigators-reveal-likely-reason-for-helicopter-crash-that-killed-kobe-bryant\/\" title=\"BREAKING: Federal Investigators Reveal Likely Reason For Helicopter Crash That Killed Kobe Bryant\">legal team argued<\/a> that this was merely a modest presumption, Yates asserted that any\u200d form of presumption is still considered a foul under state law.<\/p>\n<p>Following the ruling, the Secretary of State&#8217;s office promptly \u2062removed the contentious language from the guidance manual. \u200dHowever, the initial presumption had already impacted the February 2024 presidential \u200bprimary, during \u2062which clerks handled a substantial number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/more-suspicious-elections-absentee-data-from-detroit-36-of-absentee-ballots-returned-were-from-people-who-were-not-listed-as-being-sent-an-absentee-ballot\/\" title=\"More Suspicious Elections Absentee Data from Detroit: 36% of Absentee Ballots Returned Were From People Who Were Not Listed as Being Sent an Absentee Ballot\">absentee ballot applications<\/a> and envelopes\u200c under the flawed\u2064 guidance. The Republican\u200b National Committee and Michigan Republican Party had filed a lawsuit against Benson and Michigan&#8217;s Director\u2063 of Elections earlier in\u200b April.<\/p>\n<p>At a recent hearing, it was \u2062confirmed \u2062that the problematic language had been eliminated, but there were concerns about whether election clerks had been properly informed of the change. Assistant \u2064Attorney\u2062 General \u2063Erik Grill stated that notice had \u2064been \u200dsent to the \u200cclerks, but could not provide the exact date. Judge Yates requested evidence of this \u200dcommunication to ensure clerks were adequately updated before reviewing\u200d signatures for upcoming\u200d elections.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson&rsquo;s guidance on absentee ballot signature verification violated the state&rsquo;s constitution and ordered it removed in a final order signed on Tuesday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the ruling, Judge Christopher P. Yates, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/whitmer\/news\/press-releases\/2022\/03\/16\/appointments-to-michigan-court-of-appeals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appointee<\/a> of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, reiterated that Benson&rsquo;s &ldquo;&rsquo;initial presumption&rsquo; of validity in signature verification of absentee-ballot applications and envelopes mandated by the December 2023 guidance manual issued by defendants is incompatible with the Constitution and laws of the State of Michigan.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Benson, the defendant in the case, issued a December 2023 manual instructing clerks in more than a thousand municipal and township jurisdictions that &ldquo;[v]oter signatures are entitled to an initial presumption of validity.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Benson&rsquo;s lawyers tried to argue the validity presumption was not prescribed, just a more modest &ldquo;initial&rdquo; presumption.<\/p>\n<p>Yates didn&rsquo;t buy it. In his June 12 ruling granting declaratory relief, he <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-static.gop.com\/media\/documents\/20240612_Opin_Ord_granting_Partial_Declartory_Relief_1718296410.pdf\">wrote<\/a>: &ldquo;With apologies to Gertrude Stein, however, a presumption is a presumption is a presumption. Whether the guidance manual includes a gentle nudge instead of a hip check, it&rsquo;s still a foul under Michigan law.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sufficiently chastised, the secretary of state&rsquo;s office took steps to comply, so that by the time of the hearing on the final and official order, the offending language had already been removed from the clerks&rsquo; guidance manual.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But damage from Benson&rsquo;s guidance had already been done. The initial presumption guidance was in place for the February 2024 presidential primary where Michigan clerks had to verify <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/sos\/resources\/news\/2024\/02\/26\/over-one-million-early-and-absentee-votes-cast-ahead-of-michigans-presidential-primary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">signatures<\/a> on 1.4 million absentee ballot applications and at least 934,000 return ballot envelopes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Republican National Committee and the Michigan Republican Party <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-static.protectthevote.com\/media\/document\/filing\/4884-5256-5944_v1_Docket_--_Plaintiffs_4.22.24_Motion_for_Summary_Disposition_1w.pdf\">filed suit<\/a> against Secretary of State Benson and Jonathan Brater, Michigan&rsquo;s Director of Elections, in April.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At Monday&rsquo;s hearing, RNC attorney Robert L. Avers verified that the &ldquo;initial presumption of validity&rdquo; language had been removed from the guidance manual. But he questioned whether clerks had been notified. He pointed out what is at stake, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UFikdLonf1s\">telling<\/a> Judge Yates, &ldquo;The presumption [of signature validity] was applied during the presidential primary in February, and so this is a change and it&rsquo;s an important one. &hellip; Time is of the essence here, right? And that goes to the communication too. I mean, there&rsquo;s clerks reviewing signatures right now.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Attorney General Erik Grill <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UFikdLonf1s\">claimed<\/a> a notice to clerks about the change had been sent the prior week, but he could not provide the date of the communication.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Can you send that to Mr. Avers and me?&rdquo; Yates said, finally adding, &ldquo;I just need to see it.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I obtained a copy of a memo from a Michigan township clerk that could be the communication to which Grill alluded.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Addressed to &ldquo;Clerks and Election Directors,&rdquo; the memo alluded to a variety of changes to the manual; then, three paragraphs in, it told election officials:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;Additionally, an updated signature matching guidelines document has been posted in the eLearning Center. The document has been updated to remove the language in the guidance describing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kari-lakes-case-going-back-to-trial-judge-rejects-maricopa-countys-motion-to-dismiss\/\" title=\"Kari Lake&#039;s case will proceed to trial after Maricopa County&#039;s dismissal motion is denied by the judge.\">signature review process<\/a> as beginning with an initial assumption of validity. The specific language removed is below:<\/p>\n<p>Voter signatures are entitled to an <em>initial<\/em> presumption of validity. An initial presumption of validity does <em>not<\/em> mean that all signatures are &ldquo;presumed valid&rdquo; without further review.<\/p>\n<p>This language has been removed under the court&rsquo;s opinion in <em>Republican Nat&rsquo;l Comm v Benson<\/em>, opinion and order issued June 12, 2024.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In a statement, RNC Election Integrity Communications Director Claire Zunk confirmed all clerks have been notified.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She went on to explain the lawsuit&rsquo;s significance: &ldquo;Signature verification is a critical mail ballot safeguard to ensure ballots are cast and counted properly. Secretary Benson issued unlawful instructions &mdash; twice &mdash; while claiming Michigan&rsquo;s elections are transparent and secure.&nbsp;The RNC&rsquo;s legal efforts have secured this final ruling in&nbsp;a major victory in Michigan to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mike-kelly-same-people-criticizing-trump-peddled-russia-collusion-hoax\/\" title=\"Mike Kelly: Same People Criticizing Trump Peddled Russia Collusion Hoax\">protect election integrity<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>With only six days remaining until the primary, this important matter is finally resolved. On July 10, the state of Michigan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/sos\/resources\/news\/2024\/07\/10\/over-1-point-5-million-michigan-voters-have-requested-absentee-ballots-for-primary-election\">reported<\/a> it had received 1.5 million applications for an absentee ballot. It is impossible to know how many of those application signatures were waved through under Benson&rsquo;s unconstitutional &ldquo;guidance.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Kristine Christlieb is a senior correspondent for Michigan Fair Elections.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge from the Michigan Court of Claims determined that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson&#8217;s instructions regarding the verification of absentee ballot signatures were unconstitutional and mandated their removal in a final order issued on Tuesday. Judge Christopher P. Yates, appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, emphasized that Benson&#8217;s guidance from December 2023, which suggested an &#8220;initial presumption&#8221; of validity for signature verification on absentee ballot applications and envelopes, was not in line with Michigan&#8217;s Constitution and laws. In her December manual, Benson instructed clerks across over a thousand municipalities to assume that &#8220;[v]oter signatures are entitled to an initial presumption of validity.&#8221; Her legal team argued that this presumption was merely &#8220;initial&#8221; rather than definitive; however, Yates rejected this argument. In his ruling on June 12 granting declaratory relief, he stated: \u201cWith apologies to Gertrude Stein&#8230;a presumption is a presumption is a presumption. Whether the guidance manual includes a gentle nudge instead of a hip check, it\u2019s still a foul under Michigan law.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Following this ruling, the Secretary of State\u2019s office took action to comply with the court&#8217;s decision by removing the problematic language from their guidance manual before the official hearing on the final order. However, damage had already occurred as this initial presumption was applied during Michigan\u2019s February 2024 presidential primary when clerks needed to verify signatures for approximately 1.4 million absentee ballot applications and at least 934,000 returned ballot envelopes.<\/p>\n<p>In April, both the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Michigan Republican Party filed suit against Secretary Benson and Jonathan Brater, Director of Elections in Michigan. During Monday\u2019s hearing, RNC attorney Robert L. Avers confirmed that references to &#8220;initial presumption of validity&#8221; had been eliminated from the guidance but raised concerns about whether clerks had been informed about these changes promptly since they were currently reviewing signatures.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Attorney General Erik Grill claimed that notification regarding these changes had been sent out recently but could not specify when it occurred. Judge Yates requested proof of communication be provided to him and Avers.<\/p>\n<p>A memo obtained from one township clerk indicated updates made to signature matching guidelines which included removing language suggesting an initial assumption of validity for voter signatures due to court orders stemming from Republican Nat\u2019l Comm v Benson issued June 12.<\/p>\n<p>Claire Zunk from RNC Election Integrity Communications confirmed all clerks have been notified about these changes while highlighting their importance: \u201cSignature verification is crucial for ensuring ballots are cast accurately&#8230;Secretary Benson issued unlawful instructions\u2014twice\u2014while asserting transparency in Michigan elections.\u201d With only six days left until primary voting begins and having received around 1.5 million absentee ballot applications by July 10th without clarity on how many may have bypassed scrutiny under previous unconstitutional guidelines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":2316775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-31-at-1.08.09%E2%80%AFPM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[36793,32644,36794,36792],"class_list":["post-2316774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-ballot-signature","tag-election-integrity","tag-legal-ruling","tag-mi-judge"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-31-at-1.08.09%E2%80%AFPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316774","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\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2316774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2316775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2316774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2316774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2316774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}