During an interview on MS NOW’s The Weekend, Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson slammed Donald Trump and the Department of Justice’s latest attempt to sow seeds of doubt about past elections. 

As Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson oversaw Michigan’s most secure elections and saved citizens time and money by making government work for them. She is the only candidate in this race with a history of standing up to Trump and attacks on citizens’ rights and freedoms.

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The Weekend Panel:  Joining us now is Michigan's top election official, Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson. She's also currently running for governor of the state. It's great to have you. Donald Trump won Michigan in 2024 but of course, he did not win in Wayne County, where Detroit is. It went for Kamala Harris, and it's gone for every Democratic candidate for the past, who knows how many decades, so of all the places that the Justice Department could be demanding ballots. Why do you think they're targeting Wayne County and Detroit?

Jocelyn Benson: For the same reason, they're targeting Detroit and Philadelphia and Fulton County and Phoenix and other large cities that are majority voters of color around our country. They're trying to use old tropes to sow seeds of doubt about the validity, and safety, and security of our elections in a way towards intimidating voters, particularly voters of color, but also setting the tone to try to challenge elections in the future. Their goal is to sow seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of results in future elections. But you know, people are sick and tired of living in the past. We know our elections are safe and secure, and this continued effort to try to intimidate local clerks in our state and others to turn over ballots is un-American. It is unpatriotic. It is anti-democracy, and we in the state of Michigan will always stand and defend the voice and the votes of every citizen in this case and in every case. [...]

The Weekend Panel: What are you worried might happen if, in fact, the feds got a hold of the physical ballots, like, what are you worried they might do or might say? Like, what are the worst case scenarios for you? 

Benson: Look, transparency is our friend in elections and election security. We welcome people to look at the process, to answer and ask questions, to observe the counting of ballots, and to be engaged in the process itself as poll workers. We just ask that they tell the truth and they don't interfere with the process. What could be used here with improper access to ballots is misstatements about what actually occurred in the counting of those ballots, misstatements about the security of our elections and overall, creating a precedent to potentially seize ballots in the future on no legal grounds. I mean, there are no legal grounds here for the Justice Department to claim that they can have access to ballots of the past, and there are no legal grounds for them to do so in the future. [...]

Panel: Do you think, Madam Secretary, that this is a dry run ahead of the midterm elections you've outlined right now what your concerns are about a precedent that can be set, [...] But what scares you the most about this precedent that they're trying to set?

Benson: Exactly that. There are several legal protections to ensure our elections are held on schedule and that everyone's right to vote is protected, but if you create this false narrative that our elections are illegitimate, that opens the door to potentially overturn results in the in the future based on a rejection by the voters, or even deter people from participating at all. And that's really the tactic here, to get us to stop believing in our democracy, especially at a time when this President is unpopular and doesn't want to be held accountable by the voters this November or in any other election. He's basically said that multiple times. So what this is an effort to do is to try to again, plant seeds that can enable the interference of elections in the future. And though we will win every legal battle to protect the security of our elections and ensure they're held on time so that everyone can participate, it creates this sense of, this narrative of impropriety, or this sort of false sense of suspicion around what is actually a secure process that then paves the way for us to stop believing in our elections and their results and doubting actual democratic governance in the future.

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