Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson hosts voting rights town hall

Members from organizations including the Michigan Parent Teacher Association, Church of the Messiah in Detroit and Giffords, a nonprofit organization that advocates for stricter gun control policies, asked Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) questions regarding the upcoming November presidential election at a virtual town hall meeting Sunday. Benson discussed topics such as voter eligibility, early and absentee voting, and how the state of Michigan will ensure secure elections. 

Benson opened the meeting by explaining why she thinks it is so crucial to vote and how Michiganders can play a role in upholding democracy.

“Our votes and the votes cast by citizens all throughout our state are going to define us as a nation,” Benson said. “At this moment, it’s incumbent upon every American citizen and Michigander to ask ourselves, who do we want to be moving forward? Do we want to feed the noise? Do we want to rise above it?”

In an email to The Michigan Daily, LSA senior Maurielle Courtois, co-president of Turn Up Turnout, a nonpartisan student organization in the UMICH Votes Coalition, said she agreed with Benson on the importance of voting and emphasized the importance of young voters in the upcoming election.

“It’s vital for young people to vote because their voices shape the future,” Courtois wrote. “Policies decided now — on education, the economy, and other ‘hot button’ issues — directly impact younger generations. Voting is a way to influence these outcomes and make sure their concerns are represented.”

Benson explained how legal changes over the years have increased the number of avenues available for voting. In recent years, the state of Michigan enacted multiple constitutional amendments aiming to make voting more accessible, including codifying the right to vote by mail and vote absentee in the constitution in 2018 and adding prepaid postage for absentee ballots in 2022. This year, Detroit has already kicked off early voting, expanding upon the nine-day early voting period required by Proposal 2, passed in 2022.

“Detroit this year decided to do more than nine days, which under the law Detroit is allowed to do, and so they kicked off early voting yesterday — Oct. 19 — to great fanfare,” Benson said. “Almost 2,000 Detroiters turned out and cast their ballots yesterday. I was one of them, and it’s a great thing. We’re going to continue to see more and more people participate, I believe, in the early voting process as the years go on.”

Benson said state and federal regulations serve to ensure voters feel protected and free from intimidation on Election Day.

“Every voter in Michigan has the right to cast their ballot free from intimidation and without being solicited for votes when they’re within a 100-foot boundary,” Benson said. “This applies to in-person, early voting sites as well as Election Day polling locations. No one other than an official poll worker has the right to ask you for your ID. You do not have to provide this information to any other voter or poll watcher or challenger.”

Benson expanded on the protections in place in the state to make sure elections remain fair and secure, including the creation of an Election Fact Center website to counteract misinformation and disinformation.

“The biggest threat to election administration that we face is not a hacking of our system, but the rampant dissemination of election misinformation,” Benson said. “We have set up a website that goes through and addresses all of the conspiracy theories. … We also work to support clerks and have invested in new and increased election security infrastructure. … We are also taking the threat of artificial intelligence seriously and have enacted laws to require a disclaimer for political ads generated with (artificial intelligence).”

LSA junior Ella Stephens, undergraduate outreach coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union undergraduate chapter at the University, shared similar sentiments in an email to The Daily, referencing the “Voting Down the Ballot” Town Hall the organization hosted earlier that week.

“At our ‘Voting Down the Ballot’ Town Hall, County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum expressed that he felt secure in Ann Arbor’s voter accessibility and he is unconcerned by potential threats to the election in Washtenaw County,” Stephens wrote. “We encourage all students to register to vote, make a plan to vote, and advocate for the causes that they care about!”

Daily Staff Reporter Delilah Dakis can be reached at delilahd@umich.edu.

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