Lawsuit Claims Leftist Benson Is Breaking Election Law

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is violating the state’s constitution and breaking the law through a directive allowing individuals who have never resided in Michigan to vote in the Great Lakes State’s elections, a lawsuit filed Friday by the Michigan GOP and the Republican National Committee alleges. 

The complaint, exclusively obtained by The Federalist, takes issue with the secretary of state’s guidance on overseas voters who generally fall under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. The lawsuit asks the court to block Benson’s edict and issue a declaratory judgment that the secretary’s guidance is contrary to the law. 

It’s a do-over, so to speak, of a similar lawsuit filed less than a month before last year’s presidential election. In that case, Judge Sima Patel of the state’s Court of Claims tossed the complaint. Patel, appointed to the bench by leftist Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, cited the election integrity-killing laches doctrine in scolding Republicans for bringing the complaint too close to the election. The liberal judge wrote that the lawsuit was an “11th hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors in the November 5, 2024 general election.”

Now, the laches doctrine is no longer in play, but the election-integrity problem remains. 

‘Unconstitutional and Unlawful’

Benson, who has her heart set on being Michigan’s next far-left governor, has come under fire for myriad election-law-related offenses, presiding over some of the dirtiest voter rolls in the country, and violating campaign finance laws. 

The latest lawsuit charges Benson with creating election administration guidance that illegally waives Michigan residency requirements to allow individuals who have never lived in the United States to vote in Michigan’s elections. 

“A United States citizen who has never resided in the United States but who has a parent, legal guardian, or spouse who was last domiciled in Michigan is eligible to vote in Michigan as long as the citizen has not registered or voted in another state,” Benson’s guidance on Military and Overseas Voters, Federal Voter Registration and Absent Voting Programs states. 

As the complaint, filed again in the Court of Claims, notes, election law and the state’s constitution are “unambiguous” in their “command that no person may vote in Michigan’s elections unless they reside” or have resided in Michigan. The law makes no allowance for individuals who have never lived in Michigan. Benson’s edict is, therefore, an illegal expansion of the waiver allowing overseas citizens to vote in Michigan elections, the complaint alleges. 

“As a result, certain people who have never resided in Michigan (or perhaps anywhere else in this country) are registering to vote and voting in Michigan elections,” the lawsuit asserts. “Michigan election officials have registered persons to vote who have never resided in Michigan and have allowed them to vote in Michigan’s state, local, and federal elections.”

“So the Secretary of State’s guidance is both unconstitutional and unlawful.”

The Secretary of State’s Office could not be reached for comment.

‘Something Like 80 Percent’

Benson’s guidance also is unlawful because, as a member of the executive branch, the secretary is infringing on the legislative branch’s authority to make the state’s laws, the lawsuit alleges. 

“Simply, she has taken the Legislature’s power and used it to thwart them from fulfilling their duty to ‘enact laws . . . to preserve the purity of elections,’” the complaint argues. 

And Benson’s guidance on overseas voters gives her fellow Democrat candidates an advantage, according to the complaint. A Democrat operative told Politico that it’s a significant advantage. 

“From all the analysis that we’ve done and seen, something like 80 percent of Americans abroad vote Democrat,” Bruce Heyman, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada who helped lead the Democratic National Committee’s Democrats Abroad campaign in 2024, told the publication. 

As Politico reported, the DNC and private donors put “more than $450,000 into a get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at reaching Americans from swing states living abroad — a number the State Department puts at nearly 9 million.” While the voters in question in the RNC’s lawsuit may make up a fraction of the total vote in Michigan, Politico noted that last November’s election “could come down to a hair’s breadth margin.”

Cindy Berry, clerk for the Michigan Township of Chesterfield, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She’s also a voter. As Democrats this week have screamed, those who take a constitutional oath have a duty to uphold the Constitution. Berry must also follow Michigan election law in her duties. According to the complaint, Berry has tried to reconcile Benson’s guidance with the state constitution and election laws, “but finds that she cannot.” 

“As a local clerk, Berry seeks a declaration regarding whether clerks and election inspectors are, and will continue to be, subject to the Secretary’s instructions including — but not limited to — her instruction that electors who have not ever resided in Michigan — may vote in Michigan,” the lawsuit states. “Without relief from this Court, Berry will have to choose which contradictory, binding authority she will follow.”

A federal judge tossed out a similar overseas voter lawsuit last year in Pennsylvania — on laches grounds. 

The Michigan plaintiffs offer a “word on timing” in their complaint. They note Michigan’s primary election is slated for Aug. 4, 2026. Military and overseas voter ballots must be distributed “not later than 45 days before an election.” That’s June 20, 2026.

“For the relief sought by Plaintiffs to be effective for the 2026 August primary election, Plaintiffs need final relief, i.e., relief post-any appellate proceedings, no later than June 20, 2026,” the lawsuit requests. “Realistically, Plaintiffs need final relief two or three weeks before June 20, 2026 so the Court’s order can be disseminated and implemented throughout Michigan, and so overseas voters who are not eligible to vote in Michigan can find another jurisdiction in which they may be eligible to vote…”

In other words, the court need not concern itself with no stinking laches. 

“Individuals who have never lived in the United States, let alone Michigan, should not have a say in Michigan’s elections,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement to The Federalist. “Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is ignoring the Michigan Constitution by allowing people who don’t live in Michigan to vote in Michigan. That’s why the RNC is fighting to ensure only lawful votes count.”

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.