Unlock Michigan: Jocelyn Benson ‘Deliberately, Deceitfully Misleading’ During Slow Petition Approval Process

Unlock Michigan spokesman Fred Wszolek told The Kyle Olson Show this week that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) should approve petition signatures filed in October that would repeal the governor’s emergency powers.

Wszolek argued that the law, which was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, could come back because Democrats now have a majority on the court.

“All it would take is the administration maneuvering another lawsuit back to the Supreme Court, where they could reverse the decision from last year,” he said.

Jake Rollow, communications director for Benson, told Breitbart News in January the Bureau of Elections is in “the early stages of review” of the petitions.

“They will continue to work efficiently and expect to be done long before the July 2022 deadline,” he said.

“I think Secretary Benson is being deliberately, deceitfully misleading with this,” Wszolek countered. “She knows better. She knows the law.”

He asserted Benson is treating Unlock Michigan’s petition as a constitutional amendment, which would go on the ballot. This petition, however, would require the legislature to vote on it and would not be subject to a governor’s approval or veto. If the legislature does not approve it, then the question would be posed to voters.

“There is urgency,” he said, adding the bureaucrats at the Bureau of Elections should not need to take two years to verify the signatures.

“It has been more than three months since Unlock Michigan submitted the petitions to the Secretary of State on Oct. 2, 2020, and recent media reports indicate that not a single signature on the petitions has been reviewed by the office you oversee,” state Rep. Mike Mueller wrote in a letter to Benson last month.

“The Legislature, serving as the representatives of the people, recently approved a bill to repeal this section of law, which has already been ruled unconstitutional by the highest court in the state. The governor vetoed it,” he said.

“The citizens of our state took it upon themselves to initiate the repeal through their own petition process so that it cannot be blocked by the governor – and it is critically important that the voices of the people are not silenced,” Mueller wrote.

“There’s no doubt we have enough. They’re going to go through the counting process and determine we have enough signatures. There is no reason for them to drag their feet. This already should have been passed through the legislature,” Wszolek told The Kyle Olson Show.

“It’s just a partisan power play on her part,” he said.

Wszolek urged the legislature to use the appropriations process to its advantage, and withhold funding until the Secretary’s office acts appropriately.

“The power of the purse is the only alternative here,” he said.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays–download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.