Michigan House Holds Secretary of State Benson in Contempt for Defying Subpoena

The contempt resolution directs House legal counsel to take the proper steps necessary, including litigation, to ensure compliance with the subpoena.

Secretary of state Jocelyn Benson provides an update on the election from Huntington Place in downtown Detroit on Nov. 5, 2024. Davslens Photography/The Epoch Times

The Michigan House of Representatives declared Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in civil contempt on May 22 for defying a subpoena and refusing to turn over remaining election training materials that lawmakers are seeking for legislative oversight.

The contempt resolution against the Democratic secretary of state was adopted in a 52–47 party-line vote. It directs House legal counsel to take the proper steps necessary, including litigation, to ensure compliance with the subpoena.

The resolution was introduced by the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jay DeBoyer, a Republican, who said he put it forward after receiving word from the Michigan department of state that it would not be providing any additional materials.

“The Legislature is the body that determines how elections are run—the time, the manner, the place,” DeBoyer said in a May 22 statement. “The Constitution provides us directly with the right to oversee departments and agencies within the State of Michigan to make sure they are operating within the law. We are simply trying to determine, is the Secretary of State’s office administering elections in a lawful manner?”

Benson responded on May 22 in a statement.

“I believe in oversight and transparency. That’s precisely why our department has voluntarily complied with providing thousands of pages of documents used to train and educate our local clerks,” she said.

“However, I also have a duty to protect the security of our elections from politicians seeking information that would enable someone to interfere with the chain of custody of ballots, tamper with election equipment, or impersonate a clerk on Election Day.”

The training materials in question are those provided to local clerks instructing them on ballot handling, voter file access, and equipment protocols across the state.

Rep. Joseph Fox, the Republican vice-chair of the House Election Integrity Committee, said in a statement, “These aren’t controversial documents or personally identifiable information; it’s training material for election workers that the public has an interest in knowing more about.”

House Republicans suggested that elected representatives be granted secure access to the Bureau of Elections eLearning Portal to address the security concerns over the remaining documents but their request was denied.

The department of state instead said it would continue to provide the remaining documents on a rolling basis following a security review to “redact any sensitive information.”

According to Michigan law, a legislative committee may subpoena witnesses and records, and anyone who fails to appear or produce such documents may be punished for contempt of the Legislature.

Michigan state Rep. Rachelle Smit. Courtesy of Rachelle Smit

State Rep. Rachelle Smit, a Republican, said in a statement: “I was a clerk, and like thousands of other clerks, I had access to this information. My accessing it now shouldn’t be controversial.”

“For seven months, we’ve given Secretary Benson every opportunity to sit down with us and discuss the training process for clerks and their staffs,” Smit said.

Benson also said her office has “repeatedly asked the members of the committee to meet with us over the last several months. They have refused.”

Disagreement Over Transparency and Security

The action follows numerous losses by Benson in state court rulings since 2020 that found her guidance violated state and federal election law, as previously reported by The Epoch Times.

Smit said legislative oversight of Benson’s election administration is necessary because “the training directives given by Secretary Benson have been deemed unlawful by Michigan courts seven times.”

“Secretary Benson has a proven record of failure, and the public deserves to check her work,” she said.

Benson said the issue is a need to balance transparency and oversight with security.

“I do not work for the chair of the Oversight Committee. I do not work for the House Republicans. I work for the people of Michigan and I will not put their election security, or their votes, or their voices at risk,” she said.

“I look forward to now having this conversation in front of a judge in a court of law.”

House Democrat Leader Ranjeev Puri did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.