Michigan House tees up contempt resolution against Benson over election manuals subpoena

Updated at 6:15 p.m.

Three key Michigan House Republicans on Thursday said they will request a resolution to hold Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in contempt for bucking a subpoena request for unredacted election training manuals.

Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township), chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee, announced the plan at a news conference with Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Township), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Martin), chair of the House Election Integrity Committee.

The move could result in litigation against the department, presumably with a request for the court to order Benson to hand over the information.

In a statement to Michigan Advance, the Department of State said their concerns for safety of election information were valid given the fact that the House gave DeBoyer authority to disclose confidential information to anyone he chooses at his discretion. 

Smit, when she was the minority vice chair of the House Elections Committee, requested access to the Bureau of Elections’ e-learning portal, which holds education and training materials for the state’s local clerks.

When she became chair of the now-renamed Election Integrity Committee, Smit brought the matter to DeBoyer’s oversight committee, which then issued a subpoena to the Michigan Department of State for any materials that had not already been provided to DeBoyer by May 13.

The department said multiple times that it was working to fulfill Smit’s and DeBoyer’s individual requests, but the department was wary of releasing the materials without review or redaction for security reasons.

On Thursday, Bollin, DeBoyer and Smit called foul on that position and said enough was enough.

“[Our] olive branch was that we said … we’ll give you until 11 a.m. today to sit down and have an opportunity to discuss some of the items that they believe are privileged or protected items,” DeBoyer said. “Whether we agree or disagree with the theory, we believe in professionalism. So we did that, and the response to us, essentially in a letter that was returned to us this morning, said now they’re not providing us with anything further with regard to that.”

That included declining the offer to sit down and hash it out, DeBoyer said.

“That’s a pretty disappointing thing,” he said. “After all, the Legislature is the body that determines how elections are run, the time, the manner, the place, the laws by which they are implemented. [Smit] has not only the right but the duty in that role to request the information that is used to train local clerks with regard to how they administer elections.”

That said, in the letter sent Thursday the department did agree to sit down for a meeting with House legal counsel, but indicated that it would like to have an independent third-party mediator present to resolve questions about disclosing confidential information. It also questioned the scope and purpose of the committee’s inquiry.

“The Committee’s generalized purpose of investigating how every election law is implemented by DOS is so broad as to emit no purpose. But even if that purpose were assumed to be legitimate, the Committee has made no effort to explain why the sensitive information is pertinent to or necessary for its investigation,” the letter said.

A spokesperson for the department said it would have additional comment on the issue later.

But, given the perception that the House was being stonewalled, DeBoyer said House Republicans had no choice but to ask the full chamber to support a resolution holding Benson in contempt.

The next steps could include litigation.

“I think that’s a strong possibility, but what a sad day for Michigan,” DeBoyer said. “I happened to be a local clerk, as well, in 2020 when [Benson] told local clerks to not worry about signature verification on returned absentee ballots. … This is a continual problem, and the fact that we have to perhaps go to court is a shame for the people of the state of Michigan.”

Smit, who also served a clerk prior to serving in the Legislature, said she could not fathom the security risks cited by Benson and the department as reasons to not release the documents or to spend excess time redacting and reviewing them.

“it just makes us [ask]: What is it that the Department of State is hiding [in] the training materials? If there is such sensitive and protected information, then why can’t Secretary of State Benson explain to us what that is and sit down?” Smit questioned. “I have been asking to have this since November 7, 2024. It is nearly seven months. We are still here without the information.”

Bollin, also a former clerk, said many of these documents are available on the secretary of state’s website under the election administrator tab. She wondered what was so secretive about the e-learning portal as opposed to that front-facing information.

The cadre of representatives was asked if it appeared as though Benson was trying to run out the clock on the request. DeBoyer said he didn’t want to speculate on her thinking, but said that has been a tactic he’s seen play out in Lansing before.

Bollin added that the people of Michigan deserved transparency and confidence in their elections, and that Benson’s unwillingness to comply with requests from the Republican-controlled House did not instill confidence.

DeBoyer went a step further and called Benson’s action lawless.

Benson is one of several names in the race to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. Her campaign has stumbled a bit out of the gate, with the pending contempt resolution adding to headaches over the disastrous rollout of the Michigan Transparency Network campaign finance system and the Department of Attorney General finding her in violation of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act for holding her announcement event in the lobby of the building that houses her department.

This story was updated to reflect that Rep. Smit had been asking for the requested material since 2024, not 2023.