With an election weeks away, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office is desperately trying to stop Bridgewater Township Clerk Michelle McQueer from keeping the last remaining copy of an August electronic poll book in Michigan.
McQueer sued after the state refused to tell her which law to follow: Michigan’s rule that forces clerks to delete the files seven days after certification, or the federal statute that requires those records to be preserved for 22 months.
McQueer first asked Benson’s office for guidance in October of last year. She waited. She asked again. She received no answer. In August, she sued and won a temporary restraining order protecting her August 4 electronic poll book file. She is the only Michigan clerk known to still possess one. The Court of Claims has already denied the state’s motion to dismiss.
The Republican National Committee and Michigan Republican Party later joined as intervening plaintiffs. Every other clerk’s August file is already gone.
A new affidavit from the Secretary’s own office has complicated the effort to force the deletion. Rachel Clone, a data manager in the Bureau of Elections, stated under oath that the actual list of voters each precinct used on Election Day is never uploaded to the state’s main database because it would be “duplicative.” After the election, the state updates its file; the original list poll workers saw is gone and can only be reconstructed later from a change log. McQueer’s reply argues that a record that must be rebuilt after the fact has not been retained. A receipt that something was uploaded is not the same as preserving the original.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a rare Statement of Interest in the case, telling the Court of Claims that electronic poll book data—including all metadata—are federal election records the Secretary of State must preserve. DOJ’s statement relied on the Secretary’s earlier position. Attorney Kevin Kijewski, who represents McQueer, said the new affidavit means “the facts the government was asked to assume aren’t the facts anymore. The judge has the affidavit. He’ll decide.” DOJ also indicated that if all poll book data had been uploaded and preserved, it would not prioritize prosecuting clerks who followed the deletion rule—the condition Kijewski says the Clone affidavit now calls into question.
Michigan Secretary of State and Democrat candidate for Governor, Jocelyn Benson
Michigan Rule R 168.48 requires clerks to delete the software and associated files within seven days after certification. Federal law (52 U.S.C. § 20701) requires election officers to retain and preserve those records for 22 months; willful destruction is a federal crime. Kijewski said clerks raised the problem and no one would resolve it. “Michelle was willing to stand up for the rule of law. Her state told her to erase the election files seven days after certification. Federal law told her to keep them for twenty-two months. She asked the Secretary of State to resolve it. She waited eight months. She asked again. Nothing. People have been prosecuted over election data, so this wasn’t an academic question for her. She just wanted to follow the law, both laws, and nobody would tell her how.”
McQueer’s attorney Kevin Kijewski shared this update on X only hours ago:
UPDATE: THREE DAYS AGO A JUDGE ORDERED EVERY MICHIGAN CLERK TO KEEP THE NOVEMBER 3 POLL BOOKS. DO NOT DELETE.
YESTERDAY MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE JOCELYN BENSON ASKED THE COURT OF APPEALS TO UNDO THE JUDGE’S TRO IN AN “EMERGENCY APPLICATION.”
TODAY WE ANSWERED: NOT SO FAST. Read it all for yourself below.
Our answer, in one sentence: Benson’s emergency application to appeal “asks leave to destroy the evidence while the court decides whether destroying it is lawful.”
Benson never even asked the trial judge to pause the order first. The reason? It “would not be expedient.”
Guess what? Michigan’s court rules say you can’t ask the Court of Appeals for a stay unless the trial court decided one first.
It’s like math. You can’t skip steps.
So she’s ALSO asking the Court of Appeals to waive the rule for no good reason.
What the Judge’s TRO costs the Department: ONE memo telling clerks not to delete.
What clerks face without the Judge’s TRO: a federal law that punishes willfully failing to keep election records with up to a YEAR in federal prison.
“The Department’s harm is a memorandum. The clerks’ harm is a statute with a jail term.”
Benson asked for a ruling by November 10. Stay tuned.
HEY BENSON, LEAVE THE CLERKS’ FLASH DRIVES ALONE.
UPDATE: THREE DAYS AGO A JUDGE ORDERED EVERY MICHIGAN CLERK TO KEEP THE NOVEMBER 3 POLL BOOKS. DO NOT DELETE.
YESTERDAY MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE JOCELYN BENSON ASKED THE COURT OF APPEALS TO UNDO THE JUDGE’S TRO IN AN “EMERGENCY APPLICATION.”
TODAY WE ANSWERED: NOT SO FAST. Read it all for yourself below.
Our answer, in one sentence: Benson’s emergency application to appeal “asks leave to destroy the evidence while the court decides whether destroying it is lawful.”
Benson never even asked the trial judge to pause the order first. The reason? It “would not be expedient.”
Guess what? Michigan’s court rules say you can’t ask the Court of Appeals for a stay unless the trial court decided one first.
It’s like math. You can’t skip steps.
So she’s ALSO asking the Court of Appeals to waive the rule for no good reason.
What the Judge’s TRO costs the Department: ONE memo telling clerks not to delete.
What clerks face without the Judge’s TRO: a federal law that punishes willfully failing to keep election records with up to a YEAR in federal prison.
“The Department’s harm is a memorandum. The clerks’ harm is a statute with a jail term.”
Benson asked for a ruling by November 10. Stay tuned.
HEY BENSON, LEAVE THE CLERKS’ FLASH DRIVES ALONE.
Their Emergency Application for Leave to Appeal: https://t.co/IoI60oQq0m
Our Answer: https://t.co/pIaN1DQ5H5
Our Answer to the Stay Motion: https://t.co/NPYtpkXcsc
Our Appendix: https://t.co/HaHEk6Ze1t
McQueer v Benson, Michigan Court of Appeals No. 383126
Let’s make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again!
@MIGOP @MI_Republicans @Th_Midwesterner @MINewsSource @stevegrubershow @MrJustinBarclay @JonathanTurley @RobGouveiaEsq @downi75 @Mike_Cox @MrAustinPredict @gatewaypundit @honestpollster @mifairelections @dcexaminer @MZHemingway @jsolomonReports @HarmeetKDhillon
— Kevin Kijewski (@KevinKijewski) October 30, 2026
McQueer’s attorney Kevin Kijewski also added that the case is small on paper—one clerk, one township, one flash drive in a locked cabinet—but the principle is not. “The record of how a federal election was run shouldn’t be destroyed a week after it’s certified, by anyone, in any party. Every clerk in this state has already deleted theirs for August. Bridgewater’s is the only copy left.”
Statements of Interest from the Justice Department in pure state-court cases are uncommon, and it is rarer still for DOJ to appear at the trial-court level. Kijewski said neither side invited or opposed the filing: “This is a clerk asking a judge a simple question. When a state rule says delete, and a federal law says keep, which one does she follow? Anyone who wants to help the court answer that is welcome.”
The Court of Claims now has the Clone affidavit, McQueer’s reply, and the federal Statement of Interest. Bridgewater’s file remains under court order while Benson’s office desperately presses for its destruction before the election. The question McQueer first posed nearly a year ago remains unanswered: when a state rule says delete, and federal law says keep, which does a Michigan clerk follow?
The post WHAT IS SHE TRYING TO HIDE? Nation’s Least Transparent Sec of State Jocelyn Benson Desperately Tries to Shut Down MI Clerk’s Effort to Preserve Poll Book Data After Election appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.