Michael Whatley, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, has taken the helm of the organization, and within mere days of being on the job he is seemingly charting a fresh course for the RNC by taking up election integrity measures before an upcoming election. Among the group’s first actions: suing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in a bid to force the state to purge names illegally maintained on its voter rolls. Under the U.S. National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), states are required to make reasonable efforts to remove from voter rolls people who have died, and those who have moved out of the jurisdiction in which they registered. For those disqualified from voting based on a criminal conviction or adjudication of mental incapacity, the law allows election officials to rely on court determinations to identify people subject to removal. The law requires states to purge ineligible names “on a regular basis” to ensure accurate voter registration lists. Ballots must be tied to a specific voter on a voter registration list. So if the names of only living, eligible people appear on voter rolls, the opportunity for fraud drops substantially. According to a new lawsuit filed by the RNC, “Michigan has failed to live up to the NVRA’s requirements” by not maintaining clean and accurate voter registration records. “At least 53 Michigan counties have more active registered voters than they have adult citizens who are over the age of 18. That number of voters is impossibly high,” the court filing states. “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,” the lawsuit continues. The lawsuit also cites a 2020 case where Michigan officials were sued over similar issues, which resulted in the Secretary of State saying election officials would cancel the registrations of 177,000 voters who were confirmed to have moved out of state. Also to be purged from the voter rolls were the names of individuals whose absentee ballots were returned to the Bureau of Elections as undeliverable for the 2020 election. Since then, the lawsuit says, “Michigan’s voter rolls have gotten exponentially worse. In 2020, Michigan had one county with registration rates above 100 percent of the voting-age population. Now it has 53.” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson responded to the lawsuit saying that officials have “done more in the last five years than was done in the previous two decades to remove deceased voters and ineligible citizens from our voting rolls and ensure their accuracy." NBC News, which published remarks from her statement, cited no explanation for how over a four year period 53 of the state’s 83 counties have more names on voter rolls than the state has eligible voters. "Let’s call this what it is: a PR campaign masquerading as a meritless lawsuit filled with baseless accusations that seek to diminish people’s faith in the security of our elections. Shame on anyone who abuses the legal process to sow seeds of doubt in our democracy," Benson said.It’s been less than a week since the Republican National Committee (RNC) had a changing of the guard that resulted in the ousting of its head, Ronna McDaniel, as well as around 60 employees.
The RNC's lawsuit is seeking a declaratory judgment that the state is in violation of section 8 of the NVRA, a permanent injunction barring officials from further violating the NVRA, and a court order to purge ineligible names from the state's voter rolls.
