It’s the job of the Michigan Secretary of State to facilitate ballot access for candidates who want to run for office and ballot removal for candidates who withdraw. This isn’t hard. Except in the bizarro world of Jocelyn Benson.
In theory, she should be a public servant who happens to be a Democrat. But with Trump and Harris running tight in Michigan, Benson is putting party over state.
Where third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West are concerned, she has tried to deny ballot access to the candidate who wants it (West), while forcing it on the candidate who doesn’t want it (Kennedy).
Benson found, after a complaint from a Democrat operative, that West’s campaign paperwork was not in order and that the violation was disqualifying for ballot access. A federal court found otherwise, and West will appear on the ballot.
As for RFK, “minor party candidates cannot withdraw,” a Benson aide explained. The law is the law, basically. Especially when it rigs the game against Donald Trump.
Every bit of lawfare, every day in court, every filing are meant to tie up the energy and time third parties need to win votes. You can’t challenge the two-party system when you’re bled dry by your lawyers.
Which is the point of it all.
The people of Michigan elected Benson twice to be secretary of state. Her job is to be the steward of the people’s ballot. Instead, she’s acting like an operative who fears losing “the most important election of our lives.”
There is a professional way to do this job. We saw Ruth Johnson and Terri Lynn Land do it. Whoever runs in 2026 to replace the term-limited Benson should vow to simply do the job professionally. It might seem too good to be true, but we’ll be eager to hear it. It’s been awhile.
Third-party candidates are a means of pushback in a game rigged to drown out voices. They’re how we vote against the system. Playing with the ballot is how the Democrats do voter suppression. If Jocelyn Benson believed in the sanctity of the ballot, she would not partake. Even she knew better than to join her counterparts in Colorado and Maine when they tried kicking Trump off theirs, claiming he is an insurrectionist.
We have seen Benson be brave and be professional at times, but what we are seeing now, with the third-party candidates, is a choice.
Third-party voters are true believers who feel left behind by the red or blue team. They’re high information voters, and they show up.
What do they do when their favored candidate doesn’t make the ballot? They go back where they came from. They crawl back to the system. Denied a choice, they vote for the echo. “Lesser of two evils” and all that.
Why force West off the ballot? Because then his voters would have no choice but Kamala Harris. What are they going to do, vote for Orange Man Bad?
Why force RFK to stay on the ballot? Because he just endorsed Trump. The calculation has changed regarding the Kennedy voter. Pre-endorsement, the thinking was that the RFK vote would take from the Democrats. It’s why Democrats worked so hard to keep RFK off the ballot. With Harris leading Trump in Michigan, but inside the margin of error, every vote counts.
After the endorsement, the belief is that the Kennedy supporters are Trump supporters and might pull votes away from the former president. Forcing RFK to stay on the ballot is a form of voter suppression.
It would be fraudulent to tell Trump voters to vote on Wednesday, Nov. 6. How is it any different to keep a man on the ballot who asked to be removed?
James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.
