RNC wins suit against Michigan Secretary of State over primary election ballot counting

The Republican National Committee and Michigan Republican Party won a lawsuit against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) over her allegedly violating state law with the guidance she issued for counting absentee ballots during the primary election.

The RNC announced the victory on Monday after the court's ruling on Thursday.

"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," RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. "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."

The lawsuit, which the RNC announced last month, alleged that while Michigan law requires absentee ballot stub numbers to match the numbers in the poll book or on the ballot return envelope to be tabulated, Benson issued contradictory guidance.

She instructed "local clerks and election inspectors to process and tabulate absent voter ballots where the stub is missing or the number on the stub does not match the number in the poll book or on the ballot return envelope as 'challenged' ballots rather than reject them as required by Michigan law," according to the lawsuit.

During the August primary election, RNC Election Integrity staff witnessed the tabulation of absentee ballots without stub numbers.

The Michigan Court of Claims ruled for the RNC and Michigan GOP, ordering Benson to revise her guidance ahead of the November election to read, "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."