Secretary of State Latest State Official to Blithely Ignore Laws

Since Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer began the state lockdown ten weeks ago, there have been a lot of laws bent, a lot of personal liberties ignored, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.  These are part of the record, little more needs to be said.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has been a willing minion of the governors in carrying our her orders in a most troubling way.  Whether it is taking issue with routine marketing by stores, shutting down non-profit food distributors for ambiguous reasons, or bulldogging barbers and hairstylists offering their services safely, Nessel has chosen the governor's arbitrary orders over the old codified laws made by the legislature, and the Michigan Constitution.

Until recently, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has remained out of the spotlight on the power grab being led by the other two Democrat women, who all share the distinction of being elected in the fall of 2018, along with a Democrat-friendly recreational marijuana proposal.  The third musketeer finally entered the realm of quasi-legality and took it upon herself to send every registered Michigander, about 7.7 million people, an application for an absentee ballot for August and November elections.

“By mailing applications, we have ensured that no Michigander has to choose between their health and their right to vote,” said Benson. “Voting by mail is easy, convenient, safe, and secure, and every voter in Michigan has the right to do it... Mailing applications to all registered voters is one of the ways that we are ensuring Michigan’s elections will continue to be safe, accurate and secure.”

President Donald Trump heard about the proactive plan, and tweeted a response shortly thereafter (reproduced above) he noted that the roguish action was unauthorized and done illegally, and inferred that the action would lead to voter fraud.  She put up the response above, claiming she was well within her power to do what she did.  But was it really? 

The $4.5 million it takes to print out and mail all of these applications to every voter came from the federal coronavirus relief fund (CARES).  There appears to be no guidance in using those funds to print and mail out unsolicited absentee ballots; had there been some money earmarked for 2020 elections by proper authorities, it would have been more fiscally responsible to adapt the polling places for safe voting and provide protection for election workers.  Such expenditures were not part of the legislation, which would seem to indicate that this may be a wasteful, improper expense, which may just be illegal under federal law.

But even if it is not, Michigan law appears to prohibit such mass mailings of absentee ballot applications.  Statute MCL 168.759 requires voters who wish to receive an absentee ballot request it in writing from their city or township clerk.  The secretary of state has no role in distributing absentee ballots or their applications, it must be requested by a citizen. 

She has broken the law in order to make the process ultimately less accountable and more complex.  If the gentle reader feels otherwise, please argue that point and address what happened in Wisconsin earlier this year and the known fraud and disenfranchisement that goes along with absentee ballots.

Also be advised that a 2008 Michigan Court of Appeals decision involving the Macomb County clerk, ruled against her sending absentee ballot applications to every voter over the age of 60. The ruling noted that election law is expressly under the Legislature's control and "the power to mail unsolicited ballot applications to qualified voters is not expressly stated anywhere in (the) statute."

President Trump's assertion is correct and our complicit corporate media should be focused on why our secretary of state is ignorant about her own duties, and why she feels the need to waste $4.5 million on an action she has not the power to do when people are suffering because of the governor's capricious shutdown plan.  She along with Whitmer and Nessel need to have a serious reality check (i.e. recall election) on the absolute powers they've adopted in this crisis to the detriment of most Michigan citizens. 

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I haven't been able to verify this claim, but it seems likely that the SOS voter rolls would have a lot of superfluous voters on it that have either passed away or moved w/o notification.  Unscrupulous voters could easily apply for a deceased person, send the application back to their clerk with their own signature of the deceased/unaccounted for person's name, and receive ballots he can fill out with his choices and effectively vote multiple times.  This type of fraud disenfranchises every person that votes as they should (one time), and SOS Benson has made it so easy to do this.  Good luck in voting her out of office...

I have used the absentee ballot for years as I go south for the winter.I have alway wondered if absentee ballots were even counted. I hope Trump does something about these rouge Government office holders . Can someone turn on the other side of their brain to do what is not against the law?  Is there a recall petition for the Governor? Or is it up to us to vote them all out when their term is up? 

You are right on the money X. The 3 top elected offices in the State are held and controlled by radial leftists. For years I heard women complain about men politicians and that more women need to be elected. Well, they got their wish and things have only gotten worse. Women do not make better politicians but they do make for more bitter politicians because for many of them using the power given them is considered  pay back time. So don't elect someone because of their gender, race or sexual orientation, vote for the most qualified candidate. Do your research. Another glaring example is Obama. People were so eager to show they were not racists that they elected the most radical leftist in U.S. history and we are still paying for his twisted agenda.

These are only 6 of the reasons why Obama was the worst President i...

6. Weaponizing the government against his enemies

5. Obama’s surveillance state

4. Purging Gitmo

3. Obamacare

2. The worst economic recovery

1. The largest deficits in history

There were more including the Iran nuclear deal, his dealings with China and Russia, etc,

I heard a recommendation on the radio of how to have "safe" elections instead of vote by mail. It was suggested that since people were safe at those locations and businesses allowed to remain open that voting should take place at those locations such as Miejer, Wallmart, liquor stores, pot shops etc. There are more than enough locations to accommodate voters so they can feel safe.

I would find it life-sustaining to vote at a nearby abortion clinic and exercise my voting rights while exercising my reproductive rights.  You may suggest I'm not a woman and that I'm definitely not pregnant, but sorry you sexist birther, you cannot dictate what I identify as on election day.

Talking about the liberal leftist ladies, it seems Dana Nessel was more concerned about raising Wixom Lake water levels to preserve freshwater mussels than having any understanding about what that water pressure in the spring on an old, inadequate dam would do in a few inches of rain.

And that may have been a cause of the Midland County dam breaks. See attached article.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/05/21/st...

yeah, any kid who has played with the "clams" (freshwater mussels) along a muddy river know that the clams, albeit slow, have an ability to seek water level.  Slower than a clam, but they can move.  Was it better to preserve the clams or $980 million dollars of downstream damage, M/r/s. Nessel?

You want to see a clam wiggle?  Watch how the State AG denies that she sued Boyce Hydro for "illegally" lowering Wixom Lake water levels (knowing that the dam didn't have the ability to handle a heavy spring rain with full lake level).

Great find Du Wright, when the state was shutdown it appears the state sued the 'Dam company' on April 29, claiming it illegally lowered lake levels and exposed aquatic life to harm.

Attorney General Nessel's spokesman:  “It is not clear why Mr. Mueller thinks the state ‘pressured’ Boyce Hydro to raise the lake level in the spring of 2020."

Suing them for keeping levels dangerously high is pressure, unless you use AG Nessel's logic.

Thanks for the information Du. I guess to sum it up, this entire dam  situation was over a dam clam brought on by damn conservationist who care more about  dam clams instead of the dam people or the damn dam owners.

Good caricature, Willy.  It's been a complicated quagmire for almost two decades, for sure, but let me give a rough summary and some opinions.

Lee Mueller (1/2 dam owner and grandson of W.D. Boyce, boyscout founder) hasn't been the best boyscout in the troop.  He acquired the 90-year old dam from Wolverine Power around 2006 and has years of violations of Federal regulations for not increasing the Edenville spillway capacity and making other repairs along the line and getting construction permits.  He wanted the lakeowners to ante up for repairs.  That didn't set well with property owners; Mueller claims poverty and makes minimal repairs without permits.  In 2018 Feds revoked his license to to produce hydropower (his source of income; he sells to Consumer's Power) and Mueller "retaliated" by dropping the lake levels on Wixom so that there would be less pressure on the failing dam.  That caused a lot of clams to die and upset a lot of lake owners who lost their recreation . 

In 2018 when Boyce Hydropower's license was revoked by the Feds, regulatory power transferred to Michigan DEQ (to what extent and authority is hard to find transparent records).  So in two years, the State of Michigan has not addressed the issue of repair of infrastructure of the dam.  Meanwhile Four Lakes (property owners along the Tittabawassee) draft up a proposal to buy the dam from Boyce Hydropower, negotiations ongoing but not completed. 

Along comes Dana Nessel who responds to dead clams and Boyce's lawsuit on her for claiming he didn't have right to drop lake levels so drastically (he didn't according to Fed regulations).  But Nessel, imo, has little knowledge or history of the dam situation or care of it's infrastructure deficiencies and pressures Boyce with more fines and payback for destroying the clams and wants Wixom lake levels restored to "summer" (full lake) capacity.  The lake owners also pressure him to have their lake (he says).  That's a bad thing to do at the height of high water, springtime rains upon a deficient dam.  So to add to your limericks, you could say that Mueller wouldn't clam up (with money), Nessel will probably clam up (be tight lipped) about her responsibilities, but meanwhile the dam clams are probably as happy as clams in springtime if they can find water.

Whitmer says she'll look into how a private company can buy dam infrastructure.  I think that's a reasonable question.  And who regulates a dam when a private company claims poverty?

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