In an effort to stop Benson from implementing the first set of rules related to the conduct of election recounts ahead of November, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has threatened legal action. In an Aug. 7 communication, Luke Bunting of the RNC Election Integrity Counsel told Benson to “cease any attempt to adopt the proposed administrative ruleset … before the upcoming general election on November 5, 2024, or any other time prior to the effective date of Senate Bill 603, the statutory framework the proposed ruleset is designed to implement.”

“The disastrous SB 603 bill, which should never have been signed into law, does not go into effect until next year,” Gineen Bresso, Election Integrity Director for the RNC and Trump Campaign, told me in a statement. “Yet Jocelyn Benson has decided she can operate above and outside existing law, ram through illegal changes, and further weaken the remaining safeguards in Michigan.”