{"id":2340940,"date":"2024-09-13T18:42:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T22:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rnc-sues-mi-sos-over-thousands-of-improperly-processed-ballots\/"},"modified":"2024-09-13T18:47:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T22:47:34","slug":"rnc-sues-mi-sos-over-thousands-of-improperly-processed-ballots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rnc-sues-mi-sos-over-thousands-of-improperly-processed-ballots\/","title":{"rendered":"RNC Sues MI SOS Over &#8216;Thousands&#8217; Of Improperly Processed Ballots"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><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%2Frnc-sues-mi-sos-over-thousands-of-improperly-processed-ballots%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=2340940&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>The Republican National Committee (RNC) has \u2062initiated a lawsuit against Michigan \u200dSecretary of State\u200d Jocelyn \u2063Benson, claiming \u2062that\u2064 thousands of absentee ballots in the state\u2019s primary\u200c election lacked \u2062the necessary \u2064signature\u200b verification markers. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra accused Benson of interfering with \u2062election\u2063 processes and disregarding election \u200dlaws. The suit alleges that incomplete guidance from Benson&#8217;s office led to confusion regarding ballot verification, particularly in the Detroit \u200bsuburb of Warren. According to\u2064 state law, ballots must\u2063 have specific markings,\u2063 including the date received and a statement from the clerk approving the tabulation of\u200b the absentee ballot. The lawsuit contends that the absence of \u2064required \u2062markers on\u2064 many\u2062 ballots and\u200b insufficient guidance from Benson\u2019s office contributed to the issue. RNC Chair Michael Whatley \u200cemphasized the need to uphold absentee ballot safeguards to ensure the\u200d integrity of elections in Michigan. Benson&#8217;s office has been asked for a response to\u200d the\u200d lawsuit.  <\/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>The Republican National Committee is suing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson after allegedly finding signature verification markers absent from &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/prod-static.gop.com\/media\/documents\/4889-4151-6003_v1_Verified_Complaint_as-filed_in_MiCOC_1726003429.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thousands<\/a>&rdquo; of ballots in the state&rsquo;s primary election.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our secretary of state is actively interfering in Michigan&rsquo;s elections, disregarding the very laws she&rsquo;s supposed to enforce,&rdquo; said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra in a Thursday press <a href=\"https:\/\/gop.com\/press-release\/rnc-sues-michigan-officials-for-failing-to-verify-absentee-ballots\/\">release<\/a> regarding the suit. &ldquo;The Michigan Republican Party will never stop fighting for the safety and security of our elections, so every single Michigander can feel confident in their vote &hellip; .&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The RNC, the Michigan GOP, and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry sued Benson and Director of Elections Jonathan Brater for issuing &ldquo;incomplete&rdquo; guidance on ballot verification, causing &ldquo;confusion.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The suit, filed Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-static.gop.com\/media\/documents\/4889-4151-6003_v1_Verified_Complaint_as-filed_in_MiCOC_1726003429.pdf\">claims<\/a> &ldquo;thousands&rdquo; of absentee ballots in the Detroit suburb of Warren were &ldquo;apparently&rdquo; counted in the state&rsquo;s Aug. 6 primary, &ldquo;despite the complete absence of a statement by the clerk on the corresponding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-the-democrats-election-heist-too-big-to-fail\/\" title=\"Is the Democrats\u2019 Election Heist \u2018Too Big to Fail\u2019?\">return envelope<\/a> that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rnc-files-another-election-related-lawsuit-against-democrat-michigan-secretary-of-state\/\" title=\"RNC Sues Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Over Election Issues\">absent voter ballot<\/a> is approved for tabulation.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Plaintiffs claim that state law requires two markers to be present on ballots before they can be tabulated: the date the ballot was received, and a statement showing the clerk has verified the voter&rsquo;s signature.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Michigan election law (<a href=\"https:\/\/legislature.mi.gov\/Laws\/MCL?objectName=mcl-168-765\">MCL 168.765 &sect;2<\/a>) states that &ldquo;written or stamped on each absent voter ballot return envelope must be the date, and the time and date if received on election day, that the absent voter ballot return envelope was received &hellip; and a statement by the city or township clerk that the absent voter ballot is approved for tabulation.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The latter was allegedly missing from ballots in Warren. Plaintiffs claim &ldquo;incomplete guidance materials&rdquo; from Benson&rsquo;s office &ldquo;contributed&rdquo; to the issue.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[State law] mandates [in part] that &hellip; after verifying each voter&rsquo;s signature, clerks must include on each approved ballot return envelope &lsquo;a statement by the city or township clerk that the absent voter ballot is approved for tabulation,&#8217;&rdquo; the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n<p>Benson&rsquo;s guidance, included as an exhibit in the <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-static.gop.com\/media\/documents\/4889-4151-6003_v1_Verified_Complaint_as-filed_in_MiCOC_1726003429.pdf\">suit<\/a>, acknowledges that clerks should mark the date the ballot was received and verify signatures &mdash; and if they don&rsquo;t match, contact the voter to &ldquo;cure&rdquo; them. But it does not explicitly mention the requirement to include a marker indicating the signature was verified.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[T]he Secretary&rsquo;s AV Ballot Processing Guidance fails to mention the clerk&rsquo;s statement of approval &hellip; as required under [state law] &hellip;, yet reads as if it contains the entire universe of requirements as to the information that a clerk must write or stamp &hellip; such that the corresponding ballot can be tabulated,&rdquo; the suit alleges. &ldquo;As a result, the AV Ballot Processing Guidance is fatally incomplete.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Recent guidance issued by the Michigan Secretary of State will undermine protections for absentee voters, leading to improper handling and counting of absentee ballots,&rdquo; said RNC Chair Michael Whatley in the press <a href=\"https:\/\/gop.com\/press-release\/rnc-sues-michigan-officials-for-failing-to-verify-absentee-ballots\/\">release<\/a>. &ldquo;We are suing to protect absentee ballot safeguards in Michigan which will help make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in the Wolverine State.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist asked Benson&rsquo;s office for its reaction to the suit and in what other locations ballots may not have been marked properly. Her office did not respond with comment in time for publication.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Claire Zunk, the RNC&rsquo;s election integrity spokeswoman, told The Federalist that the issue with ballot guidance is following a trend.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is a pattern on Benson&rsquo;s part, time after time really trying to get rid of election safeguards,&rdquo; Zunk said. &ldquo;We have had multiple lawsuits against her, and it&rsquo;s a result of her guidance that the law is not being followed properly.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The RNC <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/13\/michigan-has-more-registered-voters-than-eligible-citizens-in-53-counties-says-rnc-lawsuit\/\">sued<\/a> Benson in March, alleging there are more registered voters than eligible citizens in 53 counties across the state, as The Federalist previously reported. The group also <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/13\/judge-michigan-secretary-of-states-lax-ballot-signature-guidance-is-unconstitutional\/\">sued<\/a> her that same month for telling clerks to use a &ldquo;presumption of validity&rdquo; when evaluating absentee ballots, and a judge struck down the guidance in June. The RNC claimed in May that Benson failed to clean <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/29\/from-dead-registrants-to-inactive-mail-voters-complaints-highlight-michigans-voter-roll-mess\/\">92,000<\/a> inactive registrants from the voter rolls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>For more election news and updates, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/electionbriefing.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">electionbriefing.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Logan Washburn is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-clark-county-keeps-commercial-addresses-on-voter-rolls\/\" title=\"Lawsuit: Clark County Keeps Commercial Addresses On Voter Rolls\">staff writer covering election integrity<\/a>. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo&#8217;s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Republican National Committee (RNC) has filed a lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, claiming that signature verification markers were missing from &#8220;thousands&#8221; of ballots during the state&#8217;s primary election. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra stated in a press release on Thursday, &#8220;Our secretary of state is actively interfering in Michigan\u2019s elections and ignoring the laws she is meant to uphold. The Michigan Republican Party will continue to fight for the integrity and security of our elections so that every Michigander can trust their vote.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The RNC, along with the Michigan GOP and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry, is suing Benson and Director of Elections Jonathan Brater for providing &#8220;incomplete&#8221; guidance on ballot verification, which they argue has led to confusion. The lawsuit claims that many absentee ballots in Warren, a suburb of Detroit, were counted during the August 6 primary without proper documentation indicating that they had been approved for tabulation by the clerk.<\/p>\n<p>According to state law, two specific markers must be present on ballots before they can be counted: the date when the ballot was received and a statement confirming that the clerk has verified the voter&#8217;s signature. However, it is alleged that this latter requirement was not met for some ballots in Warren. The plaintiffs assert that inadequate guidance from Benson&#8217;s office contributed to this issue.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit points out that state law requires clerks to include a statement on each approved ballot return envelope indicating its approval for tabulation after verifying signatures. While Benson&#8217;s guidance acknowledges these requirements\u2014stating clerks should mark receipt dates and verify signatures\u2014it does not explicitly mention including an approval marker.<\/p>\n<p>The suit argues that this oversight renders her guidance fundamentally flawed: &#8220;[T]he Secretary\u2019s AV Ballot Processing Guidance fails to mention&#8230;the clerk\u2019s statement of approval&#8230;as required under [state law], yet appears as if it encompasses all necessary requirements.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>RNC Chair Michael Whatley expressed concerns about recent guidance from Benson&#8217;s office potentially undermining protections for absentee voters: \u201cWe are suing to safeguard absentee ballot protocols in Michigan which will facilitate voting while preventing fraud.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>When asked about their response to the lawsuit or other locations where ballots may have been improperly marked, Benson&#8217;s office did not provide comments before publication.<\/p>\n<p>Claire Zunk from RNC emphasized this issue reflects an ongoing pattern with Benson attempting to eliminate election safeguards: \u201cThis isn\u2019t an isolated incident; we\u2019ve seen multiple lawsuits against her due to her failure to adhere properly to election laws.\u201d Previously, in March alone, RNC sued her over allegations regarding discrepancies between registered voters and eligible citizens across 53 counties as well as issues related to absentee ballot evaluations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":2340941,"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\/09\/52529943632_008fbf83cb_k.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[20658,9807,32644,4601,6915],"class_list":["post-2340940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-sos","tag-ballots","tag-election-integrity","tag-michigan","tag-rnc"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/52529943632_008fbf83cb_k.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340940","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\/507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2340940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2340941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}