Today, the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s lawsuit over the more than 25,000 deceased registrants on the state’s voter roll was submitted to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

(Lansing, MI) – October 30, 2024: Today, the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s (PILF) appeal regarding Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson’s, failure to make a “reasonable effort” to remove deceased registrants from the voter roll was submitted to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) requires states to make a “reasonable effort” to remove the names of deceased registrants.

This is a precedent-setting case that will decide the standard for what constitutes a “reasonable effort” by election officials to remove the names of deceased registrants. The Court will decide if under the NVRA states only need to have a program to remove the names of deceased registrants or if that program must be effective in removing the names of the deceased.

This federal lawsuit was filed in November of 2021 and alleged Secretary Benson was violating the NVRA by failing to remove more than 25,000 deceased registrants from the state’s voter roll. Of these:

• 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

Throughout the course of the litigation, PILF has provided Secretary Benson with the graves and obituaries of many of these deceased registrants who remain on the voter roll. Some of these individuals passed away over two decades ago.

“In Michigan, they better watch out for dead voters this Halloween season,” said PILF President, J. Christian Adams. “Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is bitterly opposed to removing the names of deceased registrants even after seeing their gravestones and obituaries. Not only is this bad election security policy, but it also violates federal law.”

Read the Foundation’s brief here. Access prior case documents in Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Jocelyn Benson here. A factsheet on the case is available here.

This case marks the latest in a long line of cases brought by PILF under the NVRA. PILF has brought more voter roll clean-up and inspection cases under the NVRA than any organization in the United States. It has obtained judgment in many of these.

Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.

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For media inquiries, please reach out to Lbowman@publicinterestlegal.org