Lemire To Michigan Secretary of State: ‘Musk [Is] Highlighting You by Name … Do You Have Safety Concerns?’

LEMIRE: “Madam Secretary, as voting begins, let’s talk about the idea of intimidation. First of all, Elon Musk highlighting you by name. Tell us a little bit about it. Do you have safety concerns? But also, we know the Trump campaign is trying to enlist poll watchers throughout the battleground states, they say to keep an eye on things, to make sure it is fair, but other voting rights groups have suggested it is an effort to dissuade people from voting. What are you seeing in Michigan?”
BENSON: “Well, look, transparency is our friend and we welcome people to observe the process, but we draw a line where disruption occurs. We have some indication, some chatter, that disruption could occur on Election Day. If that does, we’ll be ready. We’ve been doing scenario planning, and we have a field team across the state ready to respond and de-escalate any incidents that might occur, and protect the people who are participating in democracy and making democracy work for everyone. So we’ll continue to do that, with an eye towards just making sure people vote and can have faith in the system, and that we address and seek consequences for anyone who will disrupt our process.”
GEIST: “Both campaigns concede that Michigan and other states will be razor-thin. No one really knows how this will go. But if Kamala Harris does win the state by a small margin, let’s say, we don’t have to wonder how Donald Trump and his allies, probably Elon Musk will say that it was rigged, that it was fixed, they’ll point to some conspiracy theories. How are you prepared to defend your process and show voters that it was a free and fair election?”
BENSON: “Well, exactly as we did it in 2020. We had partnerships, people all across Michigan on both sides of the aisle defending the facts, the truth about our elections. We have secured layers in place with paper ballots. We do audits after the fact to ensure our outcomes are accurate. All that to say is, the citizens of Michigan and citizens around this country really need to be critical consumers of information in this moment. The efforts to fool us and fool citizens about our elections only work if we are uninformed and can be fooled. So we set up a website, Michigan.gov/electionfacts, where throughout the post-election period, as well, we’ll be responding to conspiracy theories with facts and truth so that all of us can be ambassadors for democracy.”