LANSING — Michigan Republicans asked the Justice Department last week to monitor the state’s 2026 elections, saying they have concerns about Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
Democrats and voting rights groups have pushed back against those concerns, saying the request amounts to voter intimidation and could spark doubts about the legitimacy of next year’s races.
“It feels like a page from the same playbook that has been used for years to sow seeds of distrust in our democracy and elections,” said Merissa Kovach, political director for the ACLU of Michigan. “Our elections in Michigan are safe, secure and accurate, and this has been proven time and time again by audits and post-election reviews.”
Sen. Aric Nesbitt, who headlined the letter requesting the DOJ’s involvement, says he has concerns about Benson’s status as a candidate while also serving as the state’s top election official.
“Why are they so concerned with having proper federal oversight of the elections here in Michigan?” said Nesbitt, (R) District 20, Porter Twp. “What are they afraid of?”
Nesbitt, who is also a candidate for governor, pointed to the state’s handling of the 2024 election, in which one Chinese national and more than a dozen non-citizens were able to cast a ballot.
“One legal citizen equals one vote that’s counted one time,” he said. “It’s very simple, and I don’t know why they’re so concerned with having the Department of Justice check over like they’ve done in other states, to make sure everything’s on the up and up.”
In response, a spokesperson for the Department of State said that previous Secretaries of State have also been candidates in elections that they later preside over.
The department says that the lawmakers’ requests are “aligning with the administration’s ongoing efforts to manufacture crises to justify ongoing federal overreach that puts our citizens’ privacy, safety, and freedoms in danger.”
Voting rights groups like Voters Not Politicians have shared their own concerns about the request.
They say the federal government’s involvement could chill participation from voters and inject new uncertainty into Michigan’s election system.
“The concern that I have going into 2026 is the blatant conflict of interest in election interference that we may be facing from the Department of Justice — that’s my concern,” said Christy McGillivray, executive director of Voters Not Politicians.
A 2021 report from Michigan Senate Republicans examined allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, which were spread by the Trump campaign after his loss.
The report found, quote “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan’s prosecution of the 2020 election.”
The committee also reported that their “clear finding is that citizens should be confident the results represent the true results of the ballots cast by the people of Michigan.”
“The last thing that any elected official in Michigan should be doing is trying to convince voters that there is something wrong with our voting system,” McGillivray said. “When members of both parties have scrutinized it relentlessly and have found that it is strong and delivering the kind of non-partisan, free and fair elections that we deserve.”
Michigan’s election system is relatively decentralized compared to other states. Administration is spread among more than 1,600 county and local clerks, and all results are certified by bipartisan boards of canvassers.