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Michigan Election Results: Jocelyn Benson leads Secretary of State race of Kristina Karamo

By FOX 2 Staff
Published  November 1, 2022 12:54pm EDT
2022 Midterm Election results
FOX 2 Detroit

(FOX 2) - Michigan's official who oversees every election in the state, including the 2022 midterms, is herself up for re-election as Jocelyn Benson is seeking another term vs Republican challenger Kristina Karamo.

Around 11:30 p.m., Benson essentially declared victory over Karamo as she had more than 51% of the vote with 35% of the precincts in.

"In this election, democracy was on the ballot. The right to vote was on the ballot. And tonight, democracy won here in Michigan because of all of you.," Benson said "You all showed the world that Michigan voters will vote for truth over lies. They will vote for facts over conspiracy theories and they know the value of real results over empty promises.

Around 12:30 a.m., Benson had 51.5% of the vote compared to 46% for Karamo.

Benson was elected in the historic 2018 which saw Michigan women as governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. The secretary of state oversees many of Michigan's day-to-day operations including license plates, driver's licenses, and elections - among many other jobs.

Find more election results here. 

Benson was elected with 53% of the vote in 2018 and is being challenged by Karamo, who was overwhelmingly voted by delegates to represent the Republican Party for the position of secretary of state.

Below are the live election results as we get them as both Benson and Karamo push for votes.

More Election Results

In her four years as secretary of state, Benson - the former Dean of Wayne State University's Law School - oversaw the 2020 election which has been claimed by former President Donald Trump to have been stolen.

In April, when Karamo was elected by delegates, she said she would make sure there is confidence in election results.

"We’re going to make sure that our election results is something that everyone can be confident in," Karamo said.

The allegations that the 2020 Election was stolen or miscounted have been proven to be false but are still being repeated by Trump and his allies. Among them is Karamo who told a crowd in October that "authoritarians" are giving millions to her Democratic opponent — Benson — in an attempt to "corrupt battleground state election systems, so they can control America."

"If you look at history, it shows you what tyrants do," said Karamo, a former community college professor. "History is telling us, history is screaming to us, that if we don’t step up and fight now, we will lose the greatest country in human history."

Benson has said since November 2020 that the election was the "most secure" in the history of Michigan.

On March 2, 2021, Benson said of 174,000 absentee votes cast Wayne County that year, only 17 were found out of balance. 

That finding, along with more than 250 different audits of Michigan's election systems from the previous November determined the 2020 presidential election was the "most secure in the state's history."

Securing the election is the cornerstone of Karamo's campaign as she says that the state needs to make sure only legal votes are counted, elections are secure, and that "the rule of law is respected again."

Benson agrees the elections should be free and fair and says her work led to 30,000 election workers, a modernized voter registration system, secure drop boxes, and implemented secure absentee ballot process.

Kristina Karamo alleges Detroit voting corruption

Michigan Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo is alleging voting corruption in Detroit. She spoke Monday about a lawsuit recently filed against Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey and the City of Detroit Board of Election Inspectors.