The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is appealing a Tuesday federal court ruling that paused its efforts to cleanse Michigan’s voter rolls of approximately 26,000 deceased residents. Concurrently, the Republican National Committee (RNC) accuses Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of failing to update the permanent mail ballot list by removing 92,000 inactive registrants.
PILF has filed an appellate brief with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking to overturn a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Jane Beckering in March. Judge Beckering, appointed by Joe Biden, said Michigan makes a “regular and ongoing” good-faith effort to remove ineligible voters, dismissing PILF’s lawsuit, which argued otherwise.
PILF initially sued Benson in November 2021 for allegedly not removing about 26,000 deceased individuals from the state’s voter rolls, arguing this violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. This federal law mandates states to make “a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.”
In its appeal, PILF underscored that the district court denied its requests to depose Benson and a member of her staff. Additionally, attempts to depose ERIC, a third-party organization aiding Michigan in managing voter lists, were rejected by both a magistrate judge and Beckering.
In a separate lawsuit, the RNC alleges Benson’s office still needs to update the state’s permanent mail ballot list, which includes nearly 92,000 inactive voters. The group contended that failure to remove these obsolete entries violates state law and risks widespread distribution of absentee ballots to incorrect addresses.
An astonishing 20 percent of respondents to a Rasmussen poll on voting by mail admitted to fraud this year, easily enough to have swayed the 2020 election.
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