A Fox Guarding the Electoral Henhouse

By: Lisa Van Houten

In 2006 leftist billionaire George Soros, known for using his massive wealth to push Marxist policies, started a group called the “Secretary of State Project.”  Most states have this elected, or sometimes appointed, official.  What comes to mind when you think of the position of secretary of state?  For many people, they view the secretary of state as merely the person who oversees licensing.  If the lines are short and the fees aren’t exorbitant when we go to the DMV to renew our driver’s license or register a motor vehicle, the secretary of state must be doing a decent job, right?  So why would George Soros and other leftists care about who fills that position?

What some may not realize, in most states the secretary of state oversees more than license plates; she or he is the chief election official in their state, with ultimate oversight of elections and voter registration, while also maintaining official election results.  Whether a state has free and fair elections often hinges on one person – the secretary of state.  As Joe Biden actually admitted: “It’s about who gets to count the vote – whether your vote counts at all.”

It’s about who counts the vote – and it’s about who controls voter registration.  That’s why leftists are pouring millions of dollars into the campaigns of Democratic secretary of state candidates.  So that, as what many believe happened in 2020, a candidate could actually win an election, but not the “count.”

In 2008, the liberal news outlet Politico called the secretaries of state the “Democrat firewall.”  “…Democrats have built an administrative firewall designed to protect their electoral interests in five of the most important battleground states. …

“With a Democrat now in charge of the offices, which oversee and administer their state’s elections, the party is better positioned than in the previous elections to advance traditional Democratic interests —such as increasing voter registration and boosting turnout — rather than Republican priorities such as stamping out voter fraud.

Perhaps more important… Democrats are now in a more advantageous position when it comes to the interpretation and administration of election law …”

One of those George Soros-funded secretaries of state is Michigan’s Jocelyn Benson, a Democratic activist who has a long history of cutting her teeth on leftist ideology. 

While earning her Master’s degree, Benson conducted research on the sociological implications of “white supremacy and neo-Nazism” – what have now become the Democrats’ go-to buzzwords to falsely malign conservatives.  Benson then worked for the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization whose main focus is to target Christian and conservative organizations, such as Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom, labeling them as “hate groups.”  Benson also worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund regarding voting rights and election law.

The term “voting rights” has become a code word for unverified, often fraudulent, voting.  Democrats claim that stipulations such as requiring a voter ID, to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote, or restrictions on ballot harvesting, a practice that is rife with fraud, are attacks upon voting rights.  As Politico admitted, Democrats do not make “stamping out voter fraud” a priority.  Just this week the Democratic secretary of state in Colorado was caught sending out 30,000 voter registration cards to non-citizens – printed in English and Spanish.  The names were taken from the DMV’s list of licensed drivers, because Colorado is one of 18 states that allows for non-citizens and illegals to obtain a state driver’s license, a practice which makes voter fraud easy and more likely.

Let’s look at a few of the ways Jocelyn Benson has used her position as secretary of state in Michigan to undermine election integrity and increase the likelihood of voter fraud.  The Federalist states, “as Michigan’s secretary of state during the chaotic 2020 presidential election, Benson played a key role in making last-minute changes to election law to bolster Democratic voter turnout and swing Michigan in then-candidate Joe Biden’s favor.”

When Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg funneled $12 million – otherwise known as “Zuck Bucks” to Michigan to help “administer” elections, the money didn’t go to the state, but to Benson’s nonprofit, the Michigan Center for Election Law and Administration, with nearly all of the $12 million paid to highly partisan Democratic political consulting firms.

In 2020 Benson sent out automatic voter registration forms to all eligible Michigan citizens, padding the voter rolls with 114,000 additional names right before the election.  Because these forms weren’t requested, and were automatically sent to all mailboxes, it increased the likelihood that many of these forms were used for fraudulent registrations. In addition, Benson has been sued multiple times for refusing to clean up Michigan’s voter rolls.  In 2020 the Michigan Freedom Fund filed a suit against Benson and a number of county clerks for failing to maintain accurate voter rolls.  For example, Michigan’s Leelanau County had more registered voters than adult citizens and numerous other counties had registration rates of nearly one hundred percent, a statistic that is highly unlikely. In another case against Benson, a judge ruled in August of this year that a suit against Benson for failing to remove dead voters from the rolls can go forward, a case which Benson had attempted to have dismissed.

In 2020, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) notified Secretary of State Benson with documentation of tens of thousands of dead registrants on Michigan’s voter rolls, which Benson ignored.  So, in 2021 PILF filed a lawsuit against Benson for failing to remove these dead voter names from Michigan’s voter lists.  The Federalist reports that according to PILF’s own analysis:

23,663 registrants have been dead for five years or more
17,479 registrants have been dead for at least a decade
3,956 registrants have been dead for at least 20 years

PILF’s lawsuit contends that by refusing to clean Michigan’s voter rolls, Benson violated Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires officials to ‘conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.’

 And in yet another case against Benson, just this week the Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a lawsuit to stop Benson’s illegal efforts to restrict citizen poll challengers.  Right before the August primary, Benson issued new prohibitive guidance regarding poll watchers, impeding their right to monitor election proceedings.  The suit asserts that Benson’s recently released guidance regarding poll challengers conflicts with Michigan law, the Administrative Procedures Act. “Volunteers across the political spectrum have a right to be poll challengers, and election laws exist to be followed — not subverted by Democrat officials at the last minute,” stated RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

In 2016, before her 2018 election as Michigan’s secretary of state, Benson wrote an article for Politico advocating for the restriction of poll challengers, limiting citizen oversight of our elections.  Then in 2020, with Benson now serving as secretary of state, there was the debacle in Detroit where election observers were kept at a distance and windows were papered over, preventing them from observing the vote counting.  One of those poll watchers in Detroit that day was Kristina Karamo. After the 2020 presidential election, Karamo cited examples of voter fraud which she stated she had witnessed.

Kristina Karamo is now the Republican nominee facing off against Democrat Jocelyn Benson in the November 8 election for Michigan secretary of state.  Karamo has an uphill fight on her hands as Benson, thanks to union money and out-of-state Democratic political action committees, had $3.3 million in her campaign coffers as of September 16, compared to Karamo’s $185,000.

As secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson has followed the George Soros playbook, using her authority to subvert the electoral process, making voter fraud easier, and holding that Democratic “firewall” – where the only hope Republicans have of being elected is to turn out such a massive number of voters that it overcomes the thousands of fraudulent votes.  In four short years in office, look at the steps she’s taken to undermine election integrity.

Another leftist ploy to permanently enshrine election fraud into Michigan’s constitution will be on Michigan’s ballot in November.  Proposal 2 is an effort by the Left to permanently undermine election integrity. This amendment to Michigan’s constitution would make voter fraud far more easy and likely to occur.  It would allow for nine days of in person voting, giving the potential for the tongue-in-cheek adage, “vote early and often” to become an actuality.  Prop 2 also eliminates any requirement to show an ID in order to vote, opening the door for non-citizens to cast ballots in Michigan.  In addition, Prop 2 would deny citizens access from voting records after the election, preventing Michigan citizens from discovering election fraud.

This November’s election is vital for so many reasons.  One of those key decisions will determine if we have a fox guarding the proverbial henhouse when it comes to overseeing our elections.  In order to have fair elections, we need a secretary of state who will uphold election integrity.  Pray fervently, educate yourself and others on the choices and implications, then vote wisely on November 8.

 

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