PICK A CRIME: That's the choice Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson handed my client, a township clerk. A new state rule Benson made orders my client to DELETE the electronic poll book records of the August 4 primary within 7 days of certification. What’s the problem? Federal law orders her to KEEP those same records for 22 months, into 2028. Delete them? Face up to 1 year of imprisonment under federal law. Refuse? Up to 90 days imprisonment under Michigan law. Every path carries a penalty aimed at my client personally. For trying to follow the law. My client wrote Jocelyn Benson and the Director of Elections on July 6 and asked one question: how do I obey both? Thirty-seven days. NO ANSWER. So we asked a judge, while the records still exist. No more waiting around. Declare which law controls. Preserve the voting records. And the part that should get your attention: the same rule governs the NOVEMBER election. Read all 156 pages, complaint and exhibits, yourself: tinyurl.com/pollbookcase The one-page fact sheet: tinyurl.com/pollbookcasefact… Let's make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again! 🇺🇸 @MIGOP @MI_Republicans @TheJusticeDept @CivilRights @HarmeetKDhillon @RepMattHall @Th_Midwesterner @stevegrubershow @MrJustinBarclay @PattyLovesTruth @elonmusk @timlovesann @mifairelections @downi75 @DonnieDetroit19 @BobDinMI @MrAustinPredict @honestpollster

UPDATE: THREE DAYS AGO A JUDGE ORDERED EVERY MICHIGAN CLERK TO KEEP THE NOVEMBER 3 POLL BOOKS. DO NOT DELETE. YESTERDAY MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE JOCELYN BENSON ASKED THE COURT OF APPEALS TO UNDO THE JUDGE'S TRO IN AN "EMERGENCY APPLICATION." TODAY WE ANSWERED: NOT SO FAST. Read it all for yourself below. Our answer, in one sentence: Benson's emergency application to appeal "asks leave to destroy the evidence while the court decides whether destroying it is lawful." Benson never even asked the trial judge to pause the order first. The reason? It "would not be expedient." Guess what? Michigan's court rules say you can't ask the Court of Appeals for a stay unless the trial court decided one first. It's like math. You can't skip steps. So she's ALSO asking the Court of Appeals to waive the rule for no good reason. What the Judge's TRO costs the Department: ONE memo telling clerks not to delete. What clerks face without the Judge's TRO: a federal law that punishes willfully failing to keep election records with up to a YEAR in federal prison. "The Department's harm is a memorandum. The clerks' harm is a statute with a jail term." Benson asked for a ruling by November 10. Stay tuned. HEY BENSON, LEAVE THE CLERKS' FLASH DRIVES ALONE. Their Emergency Application for Leave to Appeal: tinyurl.com/McQueerAGEmergen… Our Answer: tinyurl.com/McQueerAnswer Our Answer to the Stay Motion: tinyurl.com/McQueerMotionsAn… Our Appendix: tinyurl.com/McQueerAppendix McQueer v Benson, Michigan Court of Appeals No. 383126 Let's make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again! 🇺🇸 @MIGOP @MI_Republicans @Th_Midwesterner @MINewsSource @stevegrubershow @MrJustinBarclay @JonathanTurley @RobGouveiaEsq @downi75 @Mike_Cox @MrAustinPredict @gatewaypundit @honestpollster @mifairelections @dcexaminer @MZHemingway @jsolomonReports @HarmeetKDhillon

BREAKING: A MICHIGAN COURT JUST ORDERED BENSON TO TELL EVERY CLERK IN THE STATE TO KEEP THE NOVEMBER 3 POLL BOOKS. The Court's words to Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State: "Defendants are directed to instruct all local election officials to retain the EPBs from the November 3 General Election." And Benson's deletion rule? "Defendants are precluded from enforcing Rule 168.48 pending the resolution of this matter." Benson's rule: DELETE the poll book files 7 days after the election is certified. Federal law: KEEP election records 22 months. One township clerk asked which law to follow. Nobody answered. So Michelle McQueer sued. In August, the Court protected her file, the ONLY one known to still exist, and barred enforcing the rule against her. Today it extended that protection to EVERY clerk in Michigan, on an additional request from the RNC and Michigan Republican Party, who joined her case this month. Glad to have them in the fight. Along the way, @TheJusticeDept and the @CivilRights division told the Court the Secretary "remains ultimately responsible" for preserving poll book data. And Benson's own data manager swore the list each precinct downloaded for Election Day "need not be uploaded." Reconstruction is not preservation. This isn't the final ruling. But no November poll book gets deleted while the judge decides. That's all one clerk asked for. ONE CLERK. ONE QUESTION. EVERY NOVEMBER POLL BOOK SAVED. The Order: tinyurl.com/PollbookStatewid… McQueer v Benson, Court of Claims No. 26-000172-MZ Let's make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again! 🇺🇸 @MIGOP @MI_Republicans @Th_Midwesterner @MINewsSource @stevegrubershow @MrJustinBarclay @JonathanTurley @RobGouveiaEsq @downi75 @Mike_Cox @MrAustinPredict @gatewaypundit @honestpollster @mifairelections @dcexaminer @MZHemingway @jsolomonReports @HarmeetKDhillon

PICK A CRIME: That's the choice Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson handed my client, a township clerk. A new state rule Benson made orders my client to DELETE the electronic poll book records of the August 4 primary within 7 days of certification. What’s the problem? Federal law orders her to KEEP those same records for 22 months, into 2028. Delete them? Face up to 1 year of imprisonment under federal law. Refuse? Up to 90 days imprisonment under Michigan law. Every path carries a penalty aimed at my client personally. For trying to follow the law. My client wrote Jocelyn Benson and the Director of Elections on July 6 and asked one question: how do I obey both? Thirty-seven days. NO ANSWER. So we asked a judge, while the records still exist. No more waiting around. Declare which law controls. Preserve the voting records. And the part that should get your attention: the same rule governs the NOVEMBER election. Read all 156 pages, complaint and exhibits, yourself: tinyurl.com/pollbookcase The one-page fact sheet: tinyurl.com/pollbookcasefact… Let's make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again! 🇺🇸 @MIGOP @MI_Republicans @TheJusticeDept @CivilRights @HarmeetKDhillon @RepMattHall @Th_Midwesterner @stevegrubershow @MrJustinBarclay @PattyLovesTruth @elonmusk @timlovesann @mifairelections @downi75 @DonnieDetroit19 @BobDinMI @MrAustinPredict @honestpollster

The Justice Department submits a statement of interest in a Michigan election lawsuit, warning officials against destroying voting records after Secretary Jocelyn Benson ordered electronic poll book data erased.

The U.S. Department of Justice has taken the highly unusual step of filing a Statement of Interest in a Michigan trial-court case — telling the Court of Claims that electronic poll book data, including all metadata, are federal election records and that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is responsible for preserving them. Statements of Interest from the Justice Department in pure state-court cases are rare. It is even rarer for DOJ to intervene at the trial-court level rather than on appeal. It is rare for the department to appear in a state trial court at all. The only recent election example is a 2022 Wisconsin circuit court case over absentee ballot witness addresses. Read the rest of the story, link in the comments.

BENSON ORDERED CLERKS TO DELETE ELECTION RECORDS. A CLERK SUED. BENSON ASKED A JUDGE TO THROW IT OUT. TODAY HE SAID NO. ON EVERY GROUND. THE CASE IN 30 SECONDS The electronic poll book is the laptop record of everyone who checked in to vote at your precinct. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's new state rule says clerks must DELETE it 7 days after the election is certified. Federal law says KEEP it 22 months. Destroying it early is a FEDERAL CRIME. My client, Bridgewater Township Clerk Michelle McQueer, asked the State which law to follow. ELEVEN MONTHS. NO ANSWER. So she sued. WHAT HAPPENED TODAY: - The Court of Claims denied the State's motion to dismiss. COMPLETELY. - The State said she waited too long. DENIED. The court: it "cannot fault plaintiff for waiting." The power to answer her "was completely in their hands." (pp 19, 21) - The State said she skipped the process. DENIED. The court: it "will not support defendants delaying in resolving the administrative proceedings and then fault plaintiff for filing suit." (p 19) - The State said a clerk can't bring this case in any court. DENIED. The court: she sued "to ensure that she ... complies with state and federal law and therefore will not be criminally charged." That's not the kind of case the State's cases are about. (pp 21-22) - And the order protecting her records STAYS IN PLACE. WHAT THE JUDGE WROTE: The State said criminal liability is "speculative" because DOJ hasn't prosecuted anyone yet. The judge, in Footnote 3: "The Court finds this contention to be quite remarkable and reckless." And Footnote 5: "Plaintiff's suit also could derivatively save the SOS from being criminally charged federally." READ THAT ONE TWICE. FROM THE HEARING, SEPTEMBER 16: - To the State's lawyer, first sentence: "Off the top, you lose on the laches." (p 5) - When Benson's lawyer argued the burden on the State: "You're arguing practicalities. But you know what? I have to comply with the law. I have to follow the law." (p 11) - On calling out the State's specious claim that a clerk can't bring this case: "I'm with you on that. You're right." (p 16) - The State's own lawyer, on the record: "You're not going to hear a merits argument from me." (p 11) WHAT'S NEXT: The State now has to defend the rule on the merits, which it has AVOIDED SINCE THE START. Benson's lawyers promised in court to issue rulings on her requests within two weeks. Once those land, both sides file, and the judge decides whether a state rule can order clerks to delete what federal law says to keep. ONE CLERK. TWO LAWS. A JUDGE WHO READS AND CARES ABOUT THE LAW. Full opinion (Sept22): tinyurl.com/pollbookruling Hearing transcript (Sept 16): tinyurl.com/pollbooktranscri… Let's make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again! 🇺🇸 @MIGOP @MI_Republicans @Th_Midwesterner @MINewsSource @stevegrubershow @MrJustinBarclay @JonathanTurley @RobGouveiaEsq @downi75 @Mike_Cox @MrAustinPredict @gatewaypundit @honestpollster @mifairelections @dcexaminer @MZHemingway @jsolomonReports

Alright, new poll now! This time the battle of the Michigan colleges! Vote for what Michigan college account is better. @UMichGOP or @MSUCR