Another IT Failure for Jocelyn Benson?

Lansing, MI – Another failure of Michigan’s State Department (SOS), led by Secretary of State and Democrat nominee for governor, has surfaced. With only days until ballots must be mailed for the November general election, the SOS website still shows no precinct level data for the primary election held in August. 

In fact, the precinct level data for every primary listed on the website is missing.

The information has been missing for weeks, and the SOS has either been unable to remedy the issue or they are still unaware. With ballots going out later this month, there is still no clear data on how many people voted in August or who they voted for. Benson’s own gubernatorial campaign may be the only campaign with access to this data.

This is not the first website mistake of Benson’s term as Secretary of State. Last year, she rolled out a new transparency website for financial disclosures, which cost taxpayers $9 million, and it was such a failure that the next bipartisan budget stripped the SOS of its own IT oversight funding.

“This is just another example of Jocelyn Benson’s incompetence as Michigan’s Secretary of State,” said Gabe Butzke, a spokesperson for Michigan Forward Network. “While she is running on a platform of efficiency and transparency, her department has operated as anything but. It also begs the question: Does Benson’s campaign have access to primary precinct data that no other campaign has access to?”