The top two elected officials tasked with enforcing election laws in Michigan – Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson – broke the law themselves when they failed to file the proper paperwork for their campaigns, an activist alleges in complaints filed with the state this week.
Citizen crusader Robert Davis says Nessel and Benson committed a misdemeanor by failing to file their post-election compliance affidavits prior to assuming office, as required by state election law.
Benson failed to file her affidavit before assuming office in January 2023, and Nessel didn’t file hers before taking office in January 2019, according to the complaint.
The law carries a maximum penalty of 93 days in jail and a $500 fine.
In the complaint, Davis is pressing Benson and the Department of State, which she runs, to issue a declaratory ruling within seven days that confirms both elected leaders violated the law.
Davis says it’s “hypocritical” of Benson and Nessel to pursue charges against Republicans for violating election laws, but not doing the same when Democrats do.
“There is no gray area in the law,” Davis tells Metro Times. “There is no gray area with respect to the undisputed facts. The hypocrisy that exists with the secretary of state and attorney general is sickening and alarming, considering their willingness to prosecute citizens who happen to be conservative or Republicans who violate similar provisions of Michigan election law.”
Nessel garnered national attention last month after charging 16 Michigan Republicans for their role in the false elector scheme to subvert the 2020 election for Donald Trump.
In June, Nessel filed charges against three people accused of submitting thousands of forged nominating signatures that ended the candidacies of five Republican gubernatorial candidates last year.
In August 2020, Nessel alleged that a former state lawmaker and two attorneys – all Republicans – violated the law by gaining improper access to voting tabulators. Former state Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City) and Matt DePerno, a former state attorney general nominee, were arraigned earlier this month as part of the investigation, which was taken over by Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson.
In April 2022, Benson was awarded a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for defending democracy and election laws.
“Here they are parading around on cable network news portraying themselves as rule-of-law public officials who are committed to enforcing the rule of law as it relates to the Michigan election law violations, and a closer look at the record reflects that they are guilty of violating multiple offense of Michigan election law,” Davis says. “The secretary of state has been complicit and obstructing prosecutions of Democrat elected officials and Democratic candidates, despite the fact that the statute is clear and unambiguous. There is no ambiguity, and the records create undisputed facts.”
To be fair, the election laws that they are accused of violating are nowhere near as egregious as the ones allegedly committed by Republicans in trying to overturn an election. Since Trump lost the November 2020 election, many Michigan Republicans have peddled falsehoods and baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud.
But the law is the law, Davis says.
Davis also pointed out that neither Nessel nor Benson held Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is a Democrat, accountable for also failing to file a post-election statement as required by law. In Worthy’s Affidavit of Identity, she attested she had filed “all” requisite statements, even though she didn’t, Davis said in a filing in Wayne County Circuit Court in July 2020.
Several Democrats in the city of Taylor were accused of committing perjury over their affidavits of identity, but no charges were filed, Davis says.
Both Nessel and Benson declined to comment for this story. Benson referred questions to Nessel’s office.
“The Attorney General is aware of the request (for comment) and has no comment,” Nessel spokeswoman Kimberly Bush told Metro Times in an email.
Davis has been a thorn in the sides of elected officials for more than a decade. He has a mixed record in filing complaints, having succeeded in removing candidates from the ballot for violating election laws. He also successfully challenged Highland Park’s recreational marijuana ordinance, which a judge struck down in July.
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