An elections integrity watchdog is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on leftist-led Michigan’s dirty voter rolls, apparently filled with tens of thousands of dead registrants.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has filed a petition seeking review of the landmark Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Jocelyn Benson, which challenges the Wolverine State’s refusal to clean up its voter rolls — a requirement under the National Voter Registration Act.
‘Reasonable Effort’
PILF argues that the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals erred in its ruling last year affirming a lower court opinion that found the Secretary of State’s office has made “reasonable efforts” to properly remove the names of deceased individuals from Michigan’s voter rolls. The case aims to clarify what a “reasonable effort” in the face of evidence that Michigan’s limited list-maintenance program’s design “virtually guarantees that thousands of deceased voters remain on the rolls.”
“Michigan’s refusal to act on overwhelming evidence of deceased registrants violates federal law,” said Kaylan Phillips, PILF’s legal counsel for the case. “The NVRA requires states to make efforts that keep the rolls accurate.”
PILF’s analysis of Michigan’s voter list identified more than 27,000 likely deceased individuals registered to vote. Some of those former citizens of the living have been dead for decades, according to the complaint. Of the suspect registrants, nearly 4,000 have been dead for at least 20 years, PILF found. Throughout the legal challenges, the foundation sent Michigan’s far-left secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, obituaries and gravestones of many of the deceased registrants.
One individual registered to vote was apparently born in 1823 — some 14 years before Michigan became a state. The person was registered to vote in 2008. It’s either an invalid registration or state elections officials have some trouble entering basic data, the foundation’s investigation mused.
The Foundation said its findings were consistent with state audits showing similar problems, but Benson has “repeatedly declined to investigate or release records explaining how the state maintains its voter rolls.”
‘Diminishing the Voice’
Benson, who is running for governor, celebrated last year’s victory in court, noting the Sixth Circuit’s assertion that “Michigan’s multi-layered efforts are more than reasonable.”
“Michigan has done more in the last six years to improve the accuracy of our voter rolls than was done in the previous two decades,” Benson said in a statement. She bemoaned “a record number of lawsuits based on false and meritless claims meant to undermine people’s faith in Michigan’s elections.”
The highly partisan Benson and her office have done more than enough on their own to erode faith in Michigan’s elections.
In June, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan charged a foreign national from communist China with making false claims to register to vote and voting as a noncitizen. State prosecutors had previously charged the man, who subsequently fled the United States. The Chinese student voted at the University of Michigan, one of at least 16 foreign nationals in the state that apparently voted in November’s election.
“When a non‑citizen casts a ballot — like all those we know did in Michigan’s 2024 General Election — it cancels out the vote of a lawful U.S. citizen, diminishing the voice of those who are legally eligible to participate,” Michigan’s Citizens Only Voting initiative states on its website.
Open Up
The Public Interest Legal Foundation’s petition also asks the Supreme Court to resolve a growing split among federal circuit courts on the question of whether citizens and watchdog groups have standing to file lawsuits after illegally being denied access to voter roll records.
Michigan’s dirty voter rolls are just the tip of the iceberg.
Earlier this year, PILF identified more than 18,000 apparently deceased registrations on Maine’s voter rolls. The review followed the foundation’s court victory that forced Maine’s Secretary of State office to open up its voter rolls to inspection, a right guaranteed under Section of 8 of the National Voter Registration Act. The office of leftist Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who unsuccessfully tried to keep then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump off the state’s primary ballot, flagged PILF and other watchdogs “for government staff to discredit and attack on social media.”
“Other emails show coordination with left-wing advocacy groups to portray PILF and even other sitting Secretaries of State as purveyors of disinformation in the lead-up to congressional hearings,” the foundation noted in a press release.
The election integrity watchdog’s petition for review also asks the Supreme Court to weigh in on a key question: Whether voters have the right to hold election officials accountable when voter roll maintenance standards are ignored.
“Michigan has access to data, but isn’t using it effectively,” said J. Christian Adams, president of PILF. “Other states are adopting modern list-maintenance tools to identify duplicate and deceased voters quickly. Michigan should as well.”