The campaign of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a former Southern Poverty Law Center board member, was funded by George Soros.
In yet another major victory for election integrity warriors and government transparency, the Michigan Court of Claims just slammed the brakes on the Michigan Bureau of Elections’ blatant attempt to hide how voters actually cast their ballots.
In an Opinion and Order Granting Summary Disposition to Plaintiff, Court of Claims Judge Christopher P. Yates ruled in favor of longtime election integrity advocate Phani Mantravadi, Founder of Check My Vote, in his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Michigan Bureau of Elections.
The fight was over the Bureau’s sudden decision in March 2024 to begin redacting the all-important “Voting Type” column from the Qualified Voter File (QVF). This column shows whether each voter cast their ballot on Election Day (ED), Early In-Person (EV), or by Absentee ballot (A).
For years, this critical information was publicly available. Then, under Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Bureau quietly started stripping it out — claiming it was necessary to protect the “secret ballot.”
Judge Christopher Yates, whom Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, wasn’t buying Benson’s story about why they need to hide the truth about the type of voting used by each voter in Michigan elections.
The Court ruled that the vast majority of voting-type information must be released to the public under FOIA. The judge made it crystal clear that the Bureau failed to prove any valid FOIA exemption or constitutional reason to blanket-redact this data for every voter in the entire state. He noted that limited redaction might be justified only in extremely rare cases involving very small precincts. (Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 5/4/2026) (Archive)