The Republican National Committee filed another election-related lawsuit against Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson over her enforcement of signature verification law.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, says that Benson directed local election officials before the February 2024 presidential primary election to presume that an absentee voter’s signature was legitimate. The RNC described this directive as “secret instructions” that were given “outside the public eye.”
“Michigan’s State Constitution is very clear: election officials have to verify the identity of voters casting absentee ballots,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley said in a statement. “Jocelyn Benson is yet again working to undermine election integrity by secretly instructing officials to disregard and circumvent these clear requirements. The RNC is suing Benson because Michiganders deserve election integrity, not underhanded Democrat schemes.”
The lawsuit said that the presumption of validity undercut state law requiring verification of absentee ballot signatures.
“While the Michigan Constitution expressly mandates that election officials ‘verify the identity’ of any voter who applies for an absent voter ballot or who votes an absent voter ballot other than in person by completing the signature comparison scheme outlined above, see Const 1963, art 2, § 4(1)(h), the Secretary has instructed local election officials to apply a ‘presumption of validity’ to those signatures,” the lawsuit says.
The suit was filed in Michigan state court by the RNC, the Michigan Republican Party, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and several Michigan voters. The plaintiffs want Benson’s actions to be declared unlawful and they want a judge to make her retract her Signature Verification Instructions.
Similar instructions from Benson before the November 2020 election were ruled “invalid” in March 2021 with a state judge saying that Benson had acted outside of the law. Michigan is again expected to be a hotly contested state with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump gearing up for a rematch.
Earlier this month, the RNC filed another lawsuit against Benson, accusing her office of maintaining inaccurate voter rolls.
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According to the lawsuit, at least 53 counties in Michigan have more active registered voters than adult citizens over the age of 18. According to the RNC, the number of counties with registration rates above 100% ballooned after 2020, when only one county had that rate.
The suit also said that 23 counties have voter-registration rates of over 90% of eligible adults registered, which is far above the average national and statewide rate.
Under Whatley’s leadership, the RNC hired two new election-focused lawyers, Charlie Spies, who will serve as the RNC’s chief counsel, and Christina Bobb, a Trump campaign lawyer who has challenged the outcome of the 2020 election.