After Michigan’s Democrat-led government significantly altered the way Michigan elections are conducted, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is attempting to put related probably “illegal” new laws into effect before the November general vote, even though the law is n’t scheduled to take effect until the following year.
Senate Bill 603 ( SB 603 ), which acts in part to “reorganize, consolidate, and add to the election laws”, as well as “provide for election officials and prescribe the powers and duties of certain state departments, state agencies, and state and local officials and employees”, was signed into law by Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month.  ,
The bill’s effective date is 91 days after the final adjournment of the 2024 regular session. The bill wo n’t go into effect until much after the November election because the legislative session is still in progress. Benson’s office already had a first set of rules governing the conduct of election recounts in the can and ready for public comment before Gov. On July 8, Gretchen Whitmer even signed SB 603 into law.
On June 17, a mandatory hearing was held for comment on this set of rules, which reflect the new law’s drastic restrictions on the scope of recounts, the definition of fraud, and canvasser investigation ability. The SB 603 rules were then also sent to Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers for approval.  ,
The board, which includes two Republicans and two Democrats, was appointed by the governor. Whitmer, gave the green light to Benson’s rules within two weeks of the bill being signed into law. In response to a request for comment regarding the rules ‘ approval, neither Richard Houskamp nor Anthony Daunt, the Republicans, responded.  ,
The new board-approved guidelines for conducting election recounts concentrate power at the state and county levels. Patrice Johnson, the Founder of Michigan Fair Elections, pointed out this potential risk.  ,
” The strength of our election system is that it is decentralized. This is an effort to centralize and transfer these tasks to the local level,” she said. There is only one reason why they want to put these regulations into effect sooner. They want to eliminate the risk of effective recount” . ,
The hearing for a second set of rules, focusing on electronic voting systems, was scheduled for last Friday.  ,
Former state senator for Michigan’s 7th District and Republican Patrick Colbeck noted that” there is notably zero mention of best practices regarding security protocols for electronic systems” and that” there are zero references to their digital record equivalents such as user account, device access, or network security protocols.”
Colbeck, in addition to his service in state government, is the author of the book, The 2020 Coup: What Happened. What We Can Do.
” It appeared to be a rubber stamp for their]Secretary of State’s ] rules”, Colbeck told me in the days following Friday’s hearing. ” I submitted 126 pages of revisions, and if they are n’t adopted into the rules, they will likely be introduced as a court exhibit in a lawsuit. They’ve demonstrated a predisposition to ignoring the law, and we need to hold them accountable”.
Benson’s History of Overreach and Dirty Tricks
The Republican National Committee ( RNC ) has threatened legal action in an effort to stop Benson from enforcing the first set of regulations governing the conduct of November election recounts. Before the upcoming general election on November 5, 2024, or any other time before Senate Bill 603, the proposed administrative ruleset is intended to be implemented, Bunting of the RNC Election Integrity Counsel advised Benson in an August 7 communication.
” The disastrous SB 603 bill, which should never have been signed into law, does not go into effect until next year”, Gineen Bresso, Election Integrity Director for the RNC and Trump Campaign, told me in a statement. ” Yet Jocelyn Benson has decided she can operate above and outside existing law, ram through illegal changes, and further , weaken the remaining safeguards in Michigan”.
It is no surprise Jocelyn Benson has lived up to her reputation for undermining election integrity, and it is no coincidence that she is pushing these new rules just before the election, Bresso said. ” We have demanded an immediate end to this brazen attack on Michigan’s elections, and will pursue every avenue to ensure she follows the law” . ,
Benson holds a record for administrative overreach. She has lost multiple election-related lawsuits, making her one of the state’s biggest legal losers.  ,
In the most recent case, Benson issued “guidelines” to the state’s clerks, telling them to presume validity of the signatures on all absentee ballots. A judge in the Michigan Court of Claims ordered Benson to remove the presumption of signature validity language from the clerks ‘ guidelines after the RNC won. However, for the 2024 presidential primary in February, those guidelines had already been in effect.
When questioned about the RNC’s claims that it was pushing to implement the new rules, Benson’s office did not respond.
There is no guarantee that a legal remedy for this most recent instance of administrative overreach will be brought in time for the election, despite the RNC’s track record of winning legal battles against Benson.
In a statement to me, former Michigan secretary of state and Republican state senator Ruth Johnson said of Benson,” This secretary of state has made it a pattern to make rules that violate the law.” ” Unfortunately, often by the time courts strike these rules down they’ve already been in force for an election. It’s gaming the system really”.
For Michigan Fair Elections, Kristine Christlieb is the senior correspondent.
