A Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s guidance on absentee ballot signature verification violated the state’s constitution and ordered it removed in a final order signed on Tuesday.
In the ruling, Judge Christopher P. Yates, an appointee of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, reiterated that Benson’s “’initial presumption’ of validity in signature verification of absentee-ballot applications and envelopes mandated by the December 2023 guidance manual issued by defendants is incompatible with the Constitution and laws of the State of Michigan.”
Benson, the defendant in the case, issued a December 2023 manual instructing clerks in more than a thousand municipal and township jurisdictions that “[v]oter signatures are entitled to an initial presumption of validity.”
Benson’s lawyers tried to argue the validity presumption was not prescribed, just a more modest “initial” presumption.
Yates didn’t buy it. In his June 12 ruling granting declaratory relief, he wrote: “With apologies to Gertrude Stein, however, a presumption is a presumption is a presumption. Whether the guidance manual includes a gentle nudge instead of a hip check, it’s still a foul under Michigan law.”
Sufficiently chastised, the secretary of state’s office took steps to comply, so that by the time of the hearing on the final and official order, the offending language had already been removed from the clerks’ guidance manual.
But damage from Benson’s guidance had already been done. The initial presumption guidance was in place for the February 2024 presidential primary where Michigan clerks had to verify signatures on 1.4 million
