Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson talks election security 1-on-1
FOX 2 (WJBK) - We are less than six months away now for the 2024 presidential election. After the last election, many of you have been asking about election integrity. Some are also wondering who's able to vote and who can't, specifically when it comes to non-citizen voting.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson stopped by the studio to tackle some of these questions in a recurring segment in the months leading up to November.
The first topic - non-citizen voting.
"Well, only US citizens can vote," Benson said. "It's really important in this era of misinformation that we equip every citizen with the information they need to know to be informed and engaged in this particularly critical presidential election cycle. This is one of the examples of how, at this moment, there's going to be a lot of misinformation injected into our political discourse to kind of try to provoke fear or even confusion about who can vote and what's actually happening, and can we trust the results of the election to be an accurate reflection of the will of the people.
"And in this case, you have this question of what if ineligible people are voting? What if people who aren't citizens are voting? The reality is, only US citizens can vote in our elections, and we have many checks in place to ensure that the law is followed by everyone."
Roop Raj: "When it comes to non-citizens, the question that people have is, Hey, is it true that people who weren't citizens voted in the last election? You can say, no."
"There's no evidence that non-citizens are voting," she said. "There's ample evidence that only US citizens are voting in our elections. And the reality is, we have so many checks in place with our decentralized election systems, from the local elections to the state level, to even the counties in between, that we catch it. If there is anyone, if anyone attempts to in any way, cast a vote if they're not an eligible voter.
"And we hold people accountable. It's a significant risk, particularly for non-citizens to try to break the law in that regard. There's no reward, because we will catch it and hold people accountable."
Roop: "So people have tried, not only here in Michigan, but across the country (and) you're saying they're caught."
"Yeah, well, certainly there's been a study that said there's more people on the US Space Station - seven - than there are who have tried to vote illegally - six nationwide," Benson said. "So certainly it is infinitesimal when we catch it and ultimately, you know, we want citizens to know that when they cast their ballot, that they can trust not only that their vote will be counted, but that we're only counting valid votes."
Roop: "We know that there are many different types of people who believe different things. There are some who are outright conspiracy. theorists who believe that almost any election in which their candidate doesn't win was handled improperly. There are others out there who just question and rightfully so as an American citizen, how well these elections are being run. What's being done right now to make sure that there's no doubt cast on this next election here in Michigan?"
"Well, transparency is our friend especially when the truth and the facts are on your side, as they are here," Benson said. "And so that's why we want citizens to ask questions and to know they can go to michigan.gov/vote if they have questions about how processes work, they can contact their local clerk with those questions.
"And in addition to that, they can serve as an election worker actually being part of the process so they can see just how meticulous every local clerk is, and protecting the integrity of the process, and ensuring the accuracy of the count.
"And again, as we did in 2020 and 2022, we'll be going through a statewide audit process after every election, to continue to affirm both the procedures and the count to ensure people can have that rightly placed faith in our elections."
Roop: "And to give some examples of that we just had a primary, the Republican primary and the Democratic primary, in which people voted for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Trump or Biden haven't questioned any of the primary results thus far and that says something about perhaps the way it was handled."
"Yes, that and also we have to recognize the political strategy afoot when people do question result is usually to sow seeds of doubt," she said. "And to delegitimize the actual winner in a way to promote a political strategy as opposed to anything factual in the allegation."
