Big Lie, Bigger Conspiracy (Guest: Jocelyn Benson)

A coordinated effort to steal the presidential election — by the Trump campaign. Republicans in Michigan and four other states sent forged certificates to Congress “awarding” their electoral votes to the losing candidate, Donald Trump. We’re joined by Michigan’s chief elections officer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, to discuss the plot along with failed efforts to pass federal voting rights legislation. Benson is Michigan’s 43rd Secretary of State. She is a former dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, Michigan, a co-founder of the Military Spouses of Michigan and a board member of the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality. Benson is considered one of the nation’s leading experts in election law, and is author of State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process. Benson was elected as Michigan’s Secretary of State in 2018, becoming the first Democrat to hold the office since Richard H. Austin left 24 years earlier. Secretary Benson graduated magna cum laude where she founded the now-annual Women in American Political Activism conference and was the first student to be elected to serve in the governing body for the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Benson received her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School where she was a general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Prior to attending law school, Benson worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center as an investigative journalist researching white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations. Benson has also worked as a summer associate for voting rights and election law for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and as a legal assistant to Nina Totenberg at National Public Radio.