LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The U.S. Western District Court of Michigan denied Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s effort to dismiss the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s (PILF) lawsuit for failing to remove deceased registrants from the state’s voter roll.
In addition, the court denied the motions to intervene by the Detroit/Downriver Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Michigan Alliance for Retired Americans, and Rise, Inc.
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In November 2021, the foundation filed a federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Benson for failure to remove 25,975 deceased registrants from the voter rolls. The Foundation notified the Secretary of State about these deceased registrants one year before filing the lawsuit.
PILF’s analysis of the deceased individuals reveals this breakdown:
- 23,663 registrants have been dead for five years or more
- 17,479 registrants have been dead for at least a decade
- 3,956 registrants have been dead for at least 20 years
“It is astonishing that Secretary Benson is so vigorously opposing effective list maintenance, said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “It’s remarkable that after sharing this data with the Secretary of State in 2020, dead registrants remained on the state’s voter rolls. This initial win is the first step to ensuring that deceased registrants are not receiving ballots and reducing the opportunity for fraud in Michigan’s elections.”
Benson’s office is also mired in another lawsuit. Two courts have ordered that she release FOIA documents by to Michigan Rising Action by September 1 regarding conversations in her office over campaign contributions related to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
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