Professor seeks Secretary of State nomination

In her pursuit of the Democratic nomination for Michigan Secretary of State, Assistant Law Professor Jocelyn Benson is currently traveling to every county in Michigan recruiting coordinators to help her campaign.
She believes that one job of the Secretary of State is to protect the integrity of the state’s elections.
“I think the most important thing is to promote transparency, so that we can make sure when money is being received to pay for elections we know how it’s being used. But also when ballots are being counted,” she said.
According to Benson, hand-count audits should be done so that they can be sure the voting machines are counting the ballots correctly.
Another issue important to Benson involves voting rights and home foreclosures.  Last March, The South End reported that Benson went to Lansing before the 2008 election to testify before the legislature on behalf of residents who had lost their homes to foreclosure.
At that time, there were rumors that those who had lost their homes would not be allowed to vote, according to the article. It also said she went there to urge incumbent Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to issue a directive, similar to Ohio’s secretary, stating that no one whose homes had been foreclosed would be denied the right to vote.
One year later, she criticized Land for not issuing a direct statement against the practice.
“There was no strong statement from our Secretary of State against the use of foreclosure lists, and I think that type of champion for voters is what that office needs,” Benson said.
Although Land cannot run again because of term limits, Benson acknowledged that she has done a lot of good things, “but I think there’s more to be done to promote elections that are at the par and level of other states.”
Benson said that she is currently the only person seeking the Democratic nomination, and if another candidate emerges for the Democratic nomination, she said, she’s not worried.
 “I’m willing to take on an opponent on the Democratic side because I know whoever emerges will be the stronger candidate because of it,” she said.
Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey was listed as a candidate on the Web sites politics1.com and uselections.com, but she was unavailable for comment.
The nomination will be decided in August 2010.
Benson recently wrote a book entitled “Democracy and the Secretary of State”, set to be published March 2010. She said that while traveling the country and speaking to secretaries in 21 states, she saw new and innovative ways the office can be used.
Among them are having the option to purchase three-or five-year license plates with an installment-plan option, taking payment by credit card and even creating an iPhone-accessible line to check wait times at a local branch.
 “I was very inspired by how much that office can be used to really promote good government and access to government,” Benson said.
Other plans include reducing voting lines by allowing early voting for some and offering no-reason absentee ballots.
Because of the closure of some secretary of state branches, she wants to be more creative in the ways services are offered, should she win. Ideas include offering some services in other government buildings or in places like department stores.
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling and Senators John Gleason, D-Flint, and Jim Barcia, D-Bay City, have endorsed Benson, according to her Web site, votebenson.com.

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