Secretary of State Benson’s motion to dismiss and outside groups’ motions to intervene were denied.
(Lansing, MI) – August 25, 2022: Today, the United States 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. The court also 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.
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 even notified the Secretary of State about these deceased individuals a year before the lawsuit was filed.
The Foundation’s analysis of the deceased individuals reveals of those 25,975:
- 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.”
In 2021, the foundation won a similar victory in Pennsylvania when the Commonwealth agreed to remove over 20,000 deceased registrants from the voter roll.
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