Benson Credits Transformation of Elections as She Runs for Governor

Jocelyn Benson sat down with The Detroit News at the Michigan Democratic Party convention in Detroit to discuss her eight years as secretary of state and her campaign for governor.

The former law school dean is one of three candidates competing for the party's nomination for secretary of state. She dropped off about 30,000 petition signatures on Sunday to get her name on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.

"I think that's what people are looking for: A government that saves them time, saves them money and makes their life easier," Benson contended. "I've done that as secretary of state, and I'll do that as governor."

Benson said she had two goals when she came into office: wait times down and voter turnout up. She said they achieved both.

"When I started, we did a strategic planning session every January, and during our first strategic planning session in 2019, we filled the whiteboard on every wall in the office," Benson said. "And in our most recent one, the final one, we had just sort of one, just one little to-do list item left, which was really gratifying."

Benson said they have increased turnout, transformed elections, eliminated gerrymermaning, implemented the state's first-ever citizens redistricting commission, and implemented new election procedures and options.

"We took Michigan's elections from being ranked 31st in the country to No. 2," Benson said.

They also reduced wait times in Secretary of State offices. Wait times are consistently 20 minutes or less, which was Benson's No. 1 campaign goal.

"No. 1, we listened to our employees, and No. 2, we collected data about what wasn't working," Benson said. "You can't fix what you can't measure."

Benson said they went around the country to look at what states with low wait times were doing. They found Indiana and Illinois had some interesting practices. They took best practices that were working in other states and replicated them here.

"But that first piece was key, listening to our employees," Benson said. "Early on in the process, we brought everyone in, all the branch office directors."

Benson sat down with the director of branch office services. He had a whole PowerPoint presentation that went through everything they needed to do. This included filling 900 vacant positions that were just vacant and not filled. They also created an opportunity for people to schedule the visit ahead of time.

"We didn't pay someone else to build that. That was built by our employees," Benson said.

Benson said she is proud of protecting elections during an era of misinformation. She said they withstood unprecedented scrutiny and an unprecedented level of frivolous lawsuits, sham legislative hearings and falsehoods spread about elections.

"I am really proud of the fact in this era of misinformation, we were able to protect our elections and ensure they remained secure," Benson said.

When asked what she would say to opponents who claim the election is secure but voters don't have faith in the results, Benson said transparency is their friend.

"But the through line is just transparency," Benson said. "The facts are on our side. The process is secure."

Benson said the most important thing they need to do is continue giving people the tools they need to get their questions answered. She said they worked with Sen. Ed McBroom in 2021 to invite people across the aisle into the process.

Benson also addressed criticism about the campaign finance website not functioning as hoped. She said it's certainly better than what they've had in the past.

"When I first ran for office, one of the things I heard most on the trail was actually, when are you going to get rid of MERTS," Benson said. MERTS was the former campaign finance disclosure system.

Benson said she did not want to leave office without taking on MITN, even though it was not going to be a smooth process.

"Whenever you try to transform a massive system that's broken, yes, there are going to be hiccups along the way," Benson said.

Benson said people see a broken system that needs fixing. She said they know she has transformed and fixed a system that every single resident has interacted with.

"The other day, I was picking up food for my son and husband, and walking out with bags of food, and this gentleman in a pickup truck pulled up next to me in the parking lot and said, Excuse me, are you the secretary of state?" Benson said.

"I was like, I am," Benson said. And he said, You know, I'm not political or anything. But I just was driving down this road the other day and realized when I passed the secretary of state's office that it's been years since I've had to go in there. Thank you for everything you've done to make that possible for me.

And I said, Yeah, now imagine if all of government worked that well, Benson said.

When asked if all three Democratic candidates for secretary of state would be a good secretary of state, Benson said she is committed to working with whoever comes through the convention and making sure they're prepared to build on what they've done and achieve even more success.