The Republican National Committee has filed a lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) over the state’s inaccurate voter rolls, arguing her office has failed to follow the National Voter Registration Act.
Newly appointed RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said Wednesday that Benson’s noncompliance with the NVRA has left the battleground state “with inflated and inaccurate voter rolls ahead of the 2024 election.”
The NVRA, passed in 1993, “requires states to keep voter registration lists accurate and current, such as identifying persons who have become ineligible due to having died or moved outside the jurisdiction.”
According to RNC, 76 of Michigan’s 83 counties have inflated voter rolls, demonstrating Benson’s lack of compliance with the act.
The RNC filed the suit along with two Michigan voters, Jordan Jorritsma, and Emerson Silvernail, over Benson’s failure to “keep their rolls accurate and up-to-date,” Whatley said in a statement to the Washington Times.
The Complaint states that at least 53 Michigan counties have more active registered voters than adult citizens over the age of 18.
“That number of voters is impossibly high,” the RNC contends in the lawsuit.
An additional 23 counties have active-voter registration rates that exceed 90 percent of adult citizens over the age of 18. That figure far eclipses the national and statewide voter registration rate in recent elections.
“Retaining voter rolls bloated with ineligible voters harms the electoral process, heightens the risk of electoral fraud, and undermines public confidence in
elections,” the plaintiffs said.
The plaintiffs said they previously provided the Secretary of State notice of the NVRA violations, hoping to avoid litigation, but Benson’s office failed to correct the violations.
RNC members voted last week to appoint Whatley, the former head of the North Carolina Republican Party, and Lara Trump, former President Trump’s daughter-in-law, as chair and co-chair of the organization.
The new, Trump-backed leadership team has made election integrity a top priority and has already begun “bulking up its Election Integrity Division,” according to the Times. At the same time, they have reportedly begun the process of ousting 60 officials across the political, data and communications departments of the RNC.
The positions are being eliminated so the RNC and Trump’s campaign can be streamlined, according Reuters.