LANSING (LifeSiteNews) — Michigan Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said over the weekend that the state’s election results may not be known for up to a full day after the fact, sparking fears of a repeat of 2020’s bitter dispute over the integrity of the voting process.
The Daily Wire reports that Benson told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that while ballot processing may be faster than in 2020, Americans shouldn’t expect to learn the state’s official victor on election night.
“We do have more options to process ballots sooner than Election Day, which is where we were restricted in 2020, so I’m optimistic we could see results even sooner,” she said. “But I would estimate end of the day on Wednesday as the best guess on how we’ll perform. With that said, we will always prioritize accuracy and security over efficiency. Understanding how much people will want those results, we’re still going to make sure the process is secure and accurate before we put anything out to the public.”
With more than a million people having already voted by mail in the Great Lakes State, the secretary’s answer raises concerns as to just how reliable the counting of those votes may be. Republicans have already filed multiple lawsuits against Benson’s office over election administration, including Michigan’s registered voter rolls exceeding the number of voting-age people in the state, and a guidance she issued on how to process ballots with missing or mismatched stubs.
“Secretary Benson continues to expose Michigan’s elections to cheating and fraud, forcing Republicans to file suit again to protect the vote for Michiganders,” Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Michael Whatley said last month. “We will continue our efforts to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Michigan – and around the country – through November 5.”
Election integrity has long been an issue in American politics, but significantly intensified when the 2020 presidential election was marked by widespread election irregularities and numerous allegations that the election had been rigged for Joe Biden against Donald Trump, bolstered by the dramatic expansion of voting by mail in the wake of COVID-19.
Twenty-eight states relaxed their mail ballot rules in 2020, contributing to a 17-million vote increase from 2016. In addition to mail ballots generally being less secure than in-person votes, four of those states – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – changed their rules without legislative consent. Those four alone comprised 56 of Biden’s electoral votes, more than enough to decide the victor.
At the same time, attempts to prove the election had been stolen were undermined by judges who dismissed some claims on process issues without ever considering their merits as well as flawed legal briefs by election challengers and dramatic examples of “smoking guns” that never panned out. Nevertheless, the controversy did lead to 14 states tightening their election rules over the following two years.
The presidential race is extremely close, with the lead Harris enjoyed since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democrat nominee shrinking as numerous observers find trends in Trump’s direction. Her national lead is down to 0.9% in RealClearPolitics’ popular vote polling average, and is roughly two points according to RaceToTheWH. Margins remain even closer in the swing states that will decide the Electoral College outcome. In Michigan, Harris leads Trump by just 1.4%.