Michigan GOP Racks Up Major Absentee Ballot Victory, Avoids 'Hanging

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It was almost “hanging chads” all over again, this time in Michigan. Luckily, the Michigan GOP took the matter to court and won.

The issue in question was the guidance given to local election officials by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, on how to handle absentee ballots when the number on the ballot stub doesn’t match the ballot number recorded for the voter. Benson instructed officials to mark such ballots as “challenged,” which could lead to hundreds or thousands of ballots being incorrectly tabulated. And, as we all know, those challenged ballots somehow always seem to break for the Democrats.

The GOP argued that state law decreed “first, that such absent-voter ballots should be rejected in the same way that the ballot of an in-person voter is rejected when there is a mismatched ballot or a missing ballot stub, and, second, that the absent voter whose ballot is rejected should be given the same opportunity to cure as an absent voter whose ballot is rejected by the clerk when the clerk is unable to verify the absent voter’s signature on the return envelope.”

Michigan judge Brock A. Swartzle found in favor of the Michigan GOP and ordered Benson to revise her instructions before the tabulation of absentee ballots begins on November 5. Here are the specifics of the judge’s order:

The following sentence found on page 7 of the Manual—“Without exposing any votes, the election inspector should verify that the number on the ballot stub agrees with the ballot recorded for the voter in the QVF Absent Voter List.”—shall be revised to read as follows: “Without exposing any votes, the election inspector must verify that the number on the ballot stub agrees with the ballot number on the face of the absent voter return envelope.”

For the sake of clarity, defendants can, as an additional step, continue with the current practice that the ballot stub number should be compared with the ballot number recorded in the QVF Absent Voter List, but, at a minimum, the Manual must be revised to reflect the statutory requirement that the ballot stub number must be compared to the number on the return envelope.

“Hanging chad” 2.0 averted.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley had this to say of the victory:

“The RNC applauds the finding by the Court requiring Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to follow Michigan law requiring ballot number matching, which comes after Benson admitted that her illegal guidance opened the door to fraud. Ballot number matching requirements are commonsense safeguards which make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. We will not stop fighting for a secure election in Michigan and across the country.”

Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra added: “Our lawsuit was once again what it took to force Jocelyn Benson to follow Michigan’s election laws and ensure that Michiganders can be confident in our electoral process. Ballot number matching requirements are a simple way to protect the integrity of our elections, and Michiganders deserve that peace of mind.”

This ruling is a big blow to Democrats, who, based on recent polling, are seeing their fortunes fade in once-reliably-blue Michigan. Kamala Harris is not doing well there, meaning there’s all the more reason to be vigilant. Tightening up the rules and judicially forcing the Democrats to play fair is a good step towards ensuring Michiganders have their votes counted correctly.