(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/01/2024) A federal judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit alleging Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson failed to purge nearly 26,000 dead people from the voter rolls.
In a 30-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering sided with Benson’s arguments that she made a reasonable effort to purge the qualified voter file and that the plaintiff, Public Interest League Foundation (PILF), failed to show “any irreparable injury” to support an injunction as requested.
Beckering’s order concluded that if there were 26,000 dead people on the qualified voter file (QVF) as alleged, that is not an unreasonable amount considering it is only an estimated 0.3 percent of the total number of registered voters – more than 8.2 million.
“Even if all the voters on PILF’s list were actually deceased, that number of deceased voters would simply not be unreasonable in a state the size of Michigan,” the judge wrote.
Benson said the Bureau of Elections and clerks “have done more work than ever before to increase the accuracy of our voter registration records and ensure the security and accuracy of our elections.”
“I’m gratified to see the courts affirm this work by dismissing this thinly veiled attempt to undermine voters’ faith in their voice, their vote, and our democracy,” Benson said in a late afternoon statement. “This is 2024. Voters should expect more attempts to fool them about our elections to follow this failed effort.
“And they should know we will continue to respond to those attacks with truth, facts, and data to give all citizens confidence that every valid vote, and only valid votes, will be counted in every election,” she added.
The November 2020 suit, filed in the Western District, alleged the Indianapolis-based PILF found 25,975 potentially deceased registrants on the state’s QVF as of August 2021, including 3,956 who had been dead for at least 20 years.
The suit alleged Benson failed to make “reasonable efforts” to purge the possible dead voters in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and that Benson failed to allow it to inspect records about the programs or activities used to ensure the QVF accuracy.
Beckering held that Section 8 of the NVRA prohibits states from removing registered voters unless the removal is at the voter’s request or provided by state law.
“Congress did not establish a specific program for states to follow for removing ineligible voters and the Sixth Circuit has not yet addressed what ‘a reasonable effort’ entails,” Beckering wrote, noting that the 11th Circuit has held death records, Social Security Death Index and state health department records are a “reasonable effort.”
PILF wanted the court to order Benson to allow the inspection, but Beckering sided with Benson, who argued PILF’s request sought documents not available under the NVRA without a court order and that she had already provided the records as the court case proceeded to discovery.
