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Ballot issue sparks war of words between President Trump, Jocelyn Benson

Ballots labeled Libertarian vice presidential candidate as Trump’s running partner

LANSING, Mich.President Donald Trump went after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Twitter Thursday.

It was sparked by an issue on absentee ballots that listed the wrong running mate.

In a Tweet, Trump called Benson a “Democrat Trump Hater" and said the mix up was intentional.

Tweets from @realDonaldTrump, dated 2:06 p.m. EST, Sept. 17, 2020. (WDIV)

Benson Retweeted the president and said it was a glitch that was quickly caught and corrected.

Tweet from @JocelynBenson, dated 2:43 p.m. EST, Sept. 17, 2020. (WDIV)

The Board of Elections reached out to local clerks and told them to reprint the ballot and instruct the voter to ignore the first ballot. Benson’s office said the misprinted ballots would still be counted if used in voting.

The Michigan Department of State released the following statement Thursday regarding the Tweets:

“The President’s tweet is false and misleading. As we have explained, in the incident was a result of a programmer error and a computer glitch that was caught within 90 minutes. Any clerks who downloaded the errored ballot were immediately notified and told how to remedy the situation. Any voters who may have received an incorrect ballot will receive a correct ballot and their vote will count. In the case that a voter returns both the incorrect and the corrected ballot, only the corrected ballot will be counted.”


About the Authors
Dane Kelly headshot

Dane is a producer and media enthusiast. He previously worked freelance video production and writing jobs in Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts. Dane graduated from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts.

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