Following the news that the RNC won an election integrity lawsuit against Michigan’s Secretary of State for restricting the rights of poll challengers, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel released the following statement.
“This ruling is a massive victory for election integrity, the rule of law, and Michigan voters. Jocelyn Benson not only disregarded Michigan election law in issuing this guidance, she also violated the rights of political parties and poll challengers to fully ensure transparency and promote confidence that Michigan elections are run fairly and lawfully. This legal win will help deliver the transparency at the ballot box that Michiganders deserve with midterm elections in 19 days.”
Background:
- The RNC and Michigan GOP sued Michigan’s Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on September 30th for unlawfully restricting the rights of poll challengers.
- These restrictions included:
- Creating a last-minute new credential form for poll challengers, subverting years of precedent and adding a barrier to poll challenger access.
- Making it more difficult to deploy poll challengers in emergency situations by creating an artificial deadline for when they can be appointed .
- Restricting which poll workers the poll challengers can communicate with, regardless of the circumstances, and unlawfully inhibiting which challenges raised by challengers become part of the election records.
- Read more about the initial lawsuit from The Federalist here.
- Today’s victory follows another RNC legal win when two weeks ago a North Carolina court ruled in favor of an RNC lawsuit protecting the rights of poll watchers in North Carolina.
- The RNC is involved in 73 cases of election integrity litigation in 20 states this cycle.
