Federal judge dismisses RNC lawsuit over Michigan voter records
FILE - A voter fills out her ballot for the Michigan primary election in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A federal court in Michigan dismissed a lawsuit over voter records, dealing another blow this week to the Republican National Committee’s efforts to target the battleground state over the voting process.
The lawsuit accused the Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater of failing to “maintain clean and accurate voter registration records.” U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering said Republicans did not supply evidence and lacked legal standing in their challenge.
Earlier this week, a Michigan state judge rejected a separate attempt brought by the RNC to disqualify the ballots of certain overseas and military voters.
The RNC alleged in its original March complaint that there are more registered voters in Michigan than eligible citizens, a claim that misrepresents data and has been echoed in recent days by Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X and owner of the social media platform X. The Republicans in the case argued the state failed to remove some people who are no longer eligible from voter rolls and violated the National Voting Rights Act.
The court disagreed. The judge said the Republicans’ claim was not plausible and did not demonstrate any specific case of an ineligible voter on the state’s active voter list.
The RNC and its attorneys on the lawsuit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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While the state does have more total voter registrations than eligible voters, that number includes voters who are inactive but cannot yet be removed from voter rolls under federal and state laws.
Federal law prohibits states from removing voters who may be ineligible until at least two federal general elections have passed since those voters failed to respond to an official notice, Beckering noted. According to the Secretary of State, there are more than 550,000 voters who were registered, but as of March are currently slated for cancellation in 2025 or 2027.
“False and meritless claims — whether they are posted on social media or in legal filings — won’t stand up in court,” Benson said in a statement. “That’s where evidence, the law, and facts rule the day.”
The lawsuit from the RNC is part of a broader effort led by Republicans to challenge large numbers of voter registration to raise questions about the integrity of this year’s election as Trump repeatedly claims without evidence that his opponents are trying to cheat.