Ottawa County Board candidate involved in RNC lawsuit against Benson over voter rolls

The Republican National Committee on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit pressing an earlier demand that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson take steps to purge voter rolls of what it previously described as suspiciously — and in many counties, impossibly — high numbers of registered voters.

Claiming that 53 of Michigan's 83 counties — including Macomb, Oakland and Wayne — have more active registered voters than they do residents over the age of 18, the lawsuit, which was also filed on behalf of two state residents, asked for a judge to find Benson's office in violation of federal law and order it to "develop and implement reasonable and effective registration list-maintenance programs."

Two individuals are plaintiffs in the suit as well, including a 2024 candidate for the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners. Jordan Jorritsma is one of two individuals involved with suing Benson's office, along with Emerson Silvernail.

Jorritsma, 25, is running as a Republican for the Ottawa County board in District 2 in the general election. The district is currently represented by Ottawa Impact Republican Lucy Ebel, but Ebel is facing a recall challenge from Democrat Chris Kleinjans in May. Kleinjans has also filed to run in the general election.

More: 'People are really fed up': Conservative joins the race for District 2

Jorritsma and Silvernail have both worked as Republican legislative staffers in Lansing, the lawsuit said.

Benson's office, which saw a similar lawsuit brought in 2021 by the conservative Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) over the purging of dead voters from registration rolls dismissed this month, denounced the new lawsuit.

"Let’s call this what it is," she said in a statement sent to the Free Press, "a PR (public relations) campaign masquerading as a meritless lawsuit filled with baseless accusations that seek to diminish people’s faith in the security of our elections. Shame on anyone who abuses the legal process to sow seeds of doubt in our democracy."

Benson said more has been done in Michigan during her tenure as secretary of state than in the previous 20 years to ensure the accuracy of the state's voter rolls.

"Federal data shows Michigan is the fifth most active state in the nation in removing the registrations of voters who have died. Since I took office, we have cancelled more than 700,000 voter registrations and identified an additional 520,000 slated for cancellation in 2025," she said.

The lawsuit follows the Republican National Committee (RNC) letter sent to Benson's office in December when it threatened legal action if steps weren't outlined to ensure the state's voter rolls are accurate ahead of the 2024 election. That letter noted, as did Wednesday's lawsuit, that 23 other counties had active voter registrations in excess of 90% of the voting age population, which is far greater than the national average for voter registration.

For its analysis, the RNC relied on 2022 estimates by the Census Bureau of county populations of residents over the age of 18. It found that in three counties, Kalkaska, Keweenaw and Mackinac, the number of active registered voters — which means those who haven't been marked as inactive for reasons such as moving or not returning election-related mail for some years from their local clerk — hit 114% or higher of the census-estimated voting population. The Secretary of State's Office disputed the RNC's analysis in correspondence with the party last year, writing that their analysis included all registered voters — not just active registered voters.

In Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, the number of active registered voters was 101% of the estimated voting age population, claimed the lawsuit. It claims the number of active registered voters in Allegan County is 104% of the county's voting age population, while Ottawa County is at 98%.

The RNC argued that by failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the voter rolls are accurate, as required by federal law, Benson's office "undermines the integrity of elections by increasing the opportunity for ineligible voters or voters intent on fraud to cast ballots." Despite contentions to the contrary, however, there is little evidence of widespread voter fraud and the same federal laws that require accurate voter rolls also require that steps are taken not to disenfranchise voters.

In the PILF case, the judge ultimately dismissed the case noting Benson's argument that even if the group's estimate of 27,000 "potentially deceased" voters remaining on the state's voter rolls — a number she maintained was reached through a "poorly designed" process — was correct, that would still account for less than one-half of a percent of Michigan's 8.2 million voters, undermining the claim that the state wasn't taking reasonable steps to purge voter rolls. The judge also noted that federal data indicated that Michigan "is consistently among the most active states in the United States in cancelling the registrations of deceased individuals."

— Free Press staff writer Clara Hendrickson and Sentinel reporter Mitchell Boatman contributed to this story.Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ottawa County Board candidate involved in RNC lawsuit over voter rolls