A judge in the Michigan Court of Claims recently ruled against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in a lawsuit that questions part of her election advice on mail-in ballots. Benson had said that ballots with different numbers on the ballot stub and the envelope should be counted as “challenged ballots.”
However, Judge Brock A. Swartzle said that if the numbers don’t match, the vote can’t be counted. Swartzle’s order made it clear that Michigan election law, which was changed in February 2024, now includes rules about the ballot stub and envelope numbers matching.
“While the Secretary can issue instructions and guidance, those must be fully consistent with the laws of this state,” he writes.
The Republican National Committee, the Michigan Republican Party, and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry filed the case in state court in September 2024.
Benson’s lawyers said that since the law didn’t say what to do with a ballot that had numbers that didn’t match, it was up to her to decide what to do. Swartzle disagreed with that point of view, saying that while there isn’t a clear answer for what to do in that situation, the law is clear that the ballot should not count.
“Our Legislature could not have been clearer: if the condition is met—i.e., if the numbers match—then the ballot is to be tabulated,” Swartzle wrote. “The obverse is equally plain and unambiguous: when the numbers do not match, or when no match can be made because there is a missing stub, the board of election inspectors has no statutory authority to tabulate the ballot.”
Angela Benander, the Michigan Department of State’s chief communications officer, said in a statement that the goal of this lawsuit has been to keep eligible voters from being able to vote in elections.
“This lawsuit is another chapter in the RNC’s years-long partisan strategy to file as many meritless lawsuits against election officials as possible,” she wrote. “Their plan is to use these court cases to cast doubt on our ability to administer free and fair elections and lay the groundwork for them to challenge any legitimate election result they don’t like.”
This comes as the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a major election law case that could determine whether states may count mail-in ballots received after Election Day.
The ruling could settle a long-running dispute with potentially sweeping implications for federal elections heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
The justices granted review in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a case challenging a federal statute that bars states from accepting mailed ballots after Election Day.
The petition, filed by Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, argues that Congress clearly defined a single, nationwide election day for federal offices — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November — and that states cannot extend counting periods beyond that date.
The case will test how far federal law preempts state authority to manage elections — an issue that has divided lower courts and election officials since 2020.
Under current law, 18 states accept mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day if they are postmarked by that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Mississippi is among those states allowing ballots received within five business days of the election to be counted.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the federal statute setting the official date for congressional and presidential elections overrides that provision, effectively requiring ballots to be received — not just mailed — by Election Day.
In a related case, the Supreme Court appeared receptive last month to a Republican lawmaker’s challenge to Illinois’s statute allowing ballots to be counted for up to two weeks after Election Day. That case, Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections, centers on whether the congressman has legal standing to bring the suit.
A decision is expected by June 2026, in time to shape how ballots are handled in the midterm elections. If the Court sides with the Fifth Circuit, states that currently count late-arriving ballots may have to overhaul their systems and tighten deadlines before November 2026.
