A Michigan Court of Claims judge has struck down official guidance from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office on absentee ballots with mismatched or missing numbers on ballot stubs and mail-in envelopes.
Michigan's mail-in ballots have detachable stubs with a unique number that should correspond to the number on the envelope for returning the ballot. Sometimes ballots arrive at polling places with missing or mismatched numbers.
Benson's guidance has said these votes can be processed as "challenged ballots," but still counted. The court ruling said the ballots cannot be counted unless the voter is contacted and fixes the problem.
“Partisans and pundits will sometimes place election integrity in tension with the right to vote,” wrote Court of Claims Judge Brock Swartzle in his decision. “This is a fallacy, as an election without integrity is as much a danger to a citizen’s vote as would be simply taking away the franchise.”
This is the newest wrinkle in a years-long battle and multiple lawsuits between the Democratic secretary of state and Republicans, who say the rules make it too easy for ineligible people to cast ballots. A Benson spokesperson said the challenges are designed to disenfranchise eligible voters.
“Their plan is to use these court cases to cast doubt on our ability to administer free and fair elections and lay the groundwork for them to challenge any legitimate election result they don’t like,” said Benson Chief Communications Officer Angela Benander in an email to Michigan Public Radio. “Their goal is always the same – to prevent thousands of eligible Michigan voters from making their voices heard in our elections.”
The lawsuit was filed by the Republican National Committee, the Michigan Republican Party and a township clerk seeking the GOP secretary of state nomination.
Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad said the lawsuits help ensure that only properly cast votes get counted -- and that Benson, who's running for governor, hasn't been successful in defending against them.
“She’s been losing most of them and saying that these are frivolous, although the courts take them up -- they don’t have to,” he said. “She loses them and says, ‘this is to disenfranchise.’ No, she is the disenfranchiser.”
Swartzle, who was nominated by a state GOP convention in an unsuccessful run for the Michigan Supreme Court in 2020, set a December 17 deadline for the parties to file briefs on possible solutions to allow voters to fix defective ballots in time for them to be counted in future elections.
