Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the state’s top elections official — and a candidate for governor — says there is a firewall between her and decisions regarding this year’s gubernatorial race while she is running for that job.
Benson outlined the plans in a letter to the chair of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, a bipartisan elections panel.
Benson said she will be kept in the dark about decisions regarding candidate petitions, ballot access controversies, and campaign finance complaints until they are made public by the Michigan Bureau of Elections.
Benson said these are fine-tuned policies that were used in 2022, when she was a candidate for reelection.
“I share this letter with you now in the interest of transparency and to establish precedent of a public-facing firewall policy that other secretaries should adhere to and be held to,” she said.
“These processes are already implemented in our department and will be in effect until the board has completed its responsibilities regarding the November 2026 general election.”
Under the rules, complaints about misfeasance or malfeasance by local election officials will also be handled by the state election director without input from Benson, who is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for governor.
Benson said her office developed the firewall rules in consultation with the Election Reformers Network, a nonprofit advocating for impartial election institutions which has a list of best practices.
The Michigan Republican Party did not provide a response to Benson's plans, but some Republicans have called for federal oversight of Michigan’s elections because Benson is Michigan’s top election official, although that would be an unprecedented step that would potentially entail wresting some measure of control from more than 1,600 local officials who manage voting and handling ballots in their communities.
It is also not unusual for secretaries of state to run in elections while serving in the office. Then-Secretary of State Ruth Johnson ran successfully for the Michigan Senate in 2018 and former Secretary of State Candice Miller was in that position when she won a seat in the U.S. House in 2002. Both are Republicans.
