CV NEWS FEED // The Republican National Committee (RNC) is suing Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, alleging that there are fake names on her state’s voter rolls.
The RNC filed its lawsuit Wednesday, days after it elected its new leadership team of Chairman Michael Whatley, Co-Chairwoman Lara Trump, and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Chris LaCivita.
Michigan is a key battleground state in this year’s presidential election.
The suit claims that Benson has “failed to live up to” Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), which “requires States to maintain clean and accurate voter registration records.”
“At least 53 Michigan counties have more active registered voters than they have adult citizens who are over the age of 18,” the lawsuit points out. “That number of voters is impossibly high.”
“An additional … 23 counties have active-voter registration rates that exceed 90 percent of adult citizens over the age of 18,” it adds. “That figure far eclipses the national and statewide voter registration rate in recent elections.”
The lawsuit also states that in the past few years “Michigan’s voter rolls have gotten exponentially worse.”
“In 2020, Michigan had one county with registration rates above 100% of the voting-age population,” the RNC wrote. “Now it has 53” such counties.
“T]his is not the first time Michigan has failed to abide by the NVRA’s requirements,” the RNC noted:
In 2020, Michigan election officials were sued in this Court for violating the NVRA …
At the time, Michigan had one county with registration rates in excess of 100% of the voting-age population, and 15 counties with rates above 90%. The state defendants moved to dismiss the case, but this Court denied the motions.
Soon after the Court denied the motions to dismiss, [Benson] publicly announced that election officials would cancel the registration of 177,000 former voters who either surrendered a Michigan driver’s license to another state or had election mail returned undeliverable to an election official before the 2018 election.
Whatley stated in a Wednesday press release: “Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls, and that’s why the [NVRA] requires state officials to keep their rolls accurate and up-to-date.”
“Jocelyn Benson has failed to follow the NVRA, leaving Michigan with inflated and inaccurate voter rolls ahead of the 2024 election,” the newly elected chairman continued. “The RNC is filing this key lawsuit because Michigan voters deserve clean voter rolls and confidence in their elections.”
The press release pointed out:
In December 2023, the RNC sent a demand letter to Benson outlining these discrepancies and threatening litigation if said discrepancies were not remedied.
Now, we are following through on our promise to litigate by filing this suit.
>> TRUMP DOMINATES IN MICHIGAN PRIMARY AS BIDEN STRUGGLES IN STATE’S POLLS <<
Firing back against the RNC’s claims, Benson told the Daily Caller that election officials in Michigan have “done more in the last five years than was done in the previous two decades to remove deceased voters and ineligible citizens from our voting rolls and ensure their accuracy.”
The Daily Caller reported:
The state of Michigan, according to Benson, has removed at least 700,000 voters from the voter rolls since she began her tenure. Another half million will be removed if they do not vote in the 2024 general election, Benson told the Daily Caller.
