In a divided ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the Democratic Secretary of State's new restrictions on poll watchers.
The top court's Democratic majority sided with Jocelyn Benson, arguing she is acting within her authority as the chief election officer of the state to require poll watchers to communicate only with a designated "challenger liaison," among other changes.
“Under the Michigan Election Law, the secretary of state is the chief election officer of Michigan,” Justice Kyra Harris Bolden wrote. “The secretary has supervisory control over local election officials in the performance of their duties.”
The court also upheld rules requiring poll watchers to use a credential form provided by Benson.
The rules have been challenged by a group of plaintiffs including the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, who said the rules violated Michigan election law.
Lower courts sided with the Republican plaintiffs, but in a 4-3 ruling, the Supreme Court largely upheld Benson's 2022 guidance for poll watchers.
The court dismissed as "moot" a challenge to Benson's ban on electronic devices inside absentee ballot centers because the Michigan legislature changed the law to allow limited use of electronic devices in those areas.
Benson said the court's ruling would help keep elections orderly and free of "interference."
“As our guidance has consistently made clear, challengers have a right to participate in the election process and they play an important role,” Benson wrote. “But election officials have a responsibility to maintain order in the polling place and ensure voters can cast a ballot without interference.”
In a dissenting opinion, Republican-appointed justice Brian K. Zahra said the court was greenlighting violations of election law that would damage trust in the process.
Zahra noted that the "challenger liaison" rule would leave many poll watchers at the mercy of an official from the opposing political party.
"The fact remains that in many instances, the manual will force challengers to communicate with a challenger liaison who will not be affiliated with the challenger’s political party or will be affiliated with an opposition political party."
The new rules allow a poll watcher to be expelled for not reporting to the designated "challenger liaison." Zahra balked at Benson's argument that she is not promulgating new administrative law, but merely "explanatory" guidance.
"The Secretary’s revisions to the manual are, in fact, 'rules' that must be followed—and followed without a trace of public discussion, accountability,
or transparency," Zahra wrote.
In 2020, Benson famously sent out mail-in ballot applications to all of the state's voters during the COVID pandemic. Benson's move was upheld by state courts.
