State Representative Rachelle Smit responded to the Michigan Department of State’s recent release of documents. These materials were provided following a subpoena for information issued by the House Oversight Committee. The release primarily consisted of newsletters sent to clerks over the years, rather than the requested election training materials.
“Leave it to our Secretary of State to ‘transparently’ dump 1,900 pages of the wrong stuff on a Friday afternoon. We will conduct a thorough review of everything her department released today. But, after sifting through the information for several hours, we’ve yet to see much of the substantive training materials we requested,” stated Smit. “Secretary Benson knows what we are asking for, and she refusing to give us access anyway.”
In conjunction with the document release, MDOS launched an “Election Transparency” website, which it claimed satisfied the House’s data request. However, Smit disputed this claim, stating, “It does not.”
Secretary of State Benson asserted that significant resources, including “hundreds of hours” and thousands of taxpayer dollars, were allocated to compile these documents. Smit countered, noting that most of the documents were already publicly available. Despite ongoing discussions, Benson continues to oppose the committee’s subpoena, referencing concerns about “sensitive information.” Smit emphasized that the committees are legally authorized to review documents pertinent to Michigan’s election procedures.
