Michigan Supreme Court won’t hear GOP appeal, so absentee ballots with mismatched stub numbers will be counted as challenged ballots Tuesday

LANSING — The Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear an appeal from the Republican National Committee, the Michigan Republican Party and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry, leaving in place state guidance that lets election workers count absentee ballots whose stub numbers are missing or do not match the return envelope.

The one-paragraph order, dated Oct. 29, denied the application “because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court.” It came five days before the Nov. 3 election. Justice Brian K. Zahra dissented, and Justice Richard H. Bernstein said he would have granted leave to appeal.

What the fight is about

Every absentee ballot in Michigan has a numbered, perforated stub, and the return envelope carries the same number. State law, MCL 168.768, tells inspectors to compare the two and says that “if the ballot numbers match,” they detach the stub and prepare the ballot for tabulation. The 2023 rewrite of the election law, Public Act 81, added that matching requirement.

The law does not say what to do when the numbers do not match or the stub is missing. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s 2024 guidance told inspectors to check the qualified voter file’s absentee list, look inside the envelope for a detached stub, and, if the problem still could not be explained, count the ballot as a challenged ballot, tabulating it and noting the discrepancy in a logbook.

The Republican plaintiffs sued in September 2024, arguing the guidance ignores the statute. Court of Claims Judge Brock Swartzle agreed in December 2025 that such ballots cannot be counted and ordered the state to use a 10-step process for voters to fix them. A Court of Appeals panel of Judges Mariam Bazzi, Michelle Rick and Allie Greenleaf Maldonado reversed that ruling on June 26, 2026.

The appeals court said the statute does not forbid counting those ballots, and pointed to a separate section, passed in the same 2023 law, that says an in-person ballot with a mismatched stub number must be marked rejected. When lawmakers wanted rejection, the panel wrote, they said so. At a polling place, the panel wrote, a bad ballot can be spoiled and replaced in front of the voter; once an absentee ballot is returned, that fix is no longer possible. It also said the lower court had imposed its statewide cure process without the findings required for a permanent injunction.

Zahra: “cheapens the role of this Court”

In his dissent, Zahra said Michigan is “a nationally prominent swing state” and that the justices owe voters an explanation of “why ballots with mismatched or missing ballot numbers are tabulated when our Legislature has plainly stated” the numbers must match first. He called the appeals court’s reading “far from perfect,” noting that the old version of the law allowed tabulation without any number check.

“Anything less cheapens the role of this Court and fails to recognize the importance of the right to vote in our state,” he wrote. He would have ordered more briefing and oral argument. Zahra is the court’s lone Republican-nominated justice, Michigan Advance reported.

What it means Tuesday

For this election, absentee ballots with missing or mismatched stubs will be handled under Benson’s guidance: counted, but logged as challenged so they can be identified later. More than 1.55 million Michigan ballots had already been cast by midweek, as The Mitten Daily reported Thursday.

Two members of the court, Chief Justice Megan K. Cavanagh and Justice Noah P. Hood, are themselves on Tuesday’s ballot, in the race for two Michigan Supreme Court seats.

Sources:
Michigan Supreme Court, order in Republican National Committee v. Secretary of State, SC 170494, Oct. 29, 2026, with Justice Zahra’s dissent (via State Court Report), https://statecourtreport.org/sites/default/files/2026-10/supreme_court_of_michigan-order.pdf
Michigan Court of Appeals, opinion in Republican National Committee v. Secretary of State, No. 379136, June 26, 2026 (2024 guidance, Court of Claims ruling, holding), https://statecourtreport.org/sites/default/files/2026-10/court_of_appeals_of_michigan-opinion.pdf
Michigan Advance, “Michigan Supreme Court declines to hear GOP appeal in case challenging mail-in voting guidance,” Oct. 29, 2026 (Court of Claims date, panel, Zahra’s affiliation), https://michiganadvance.com/2026/10/29/michigan-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-gop-appeal-in-case-challenging-mail-in-voting-guidance/
Photo: Antony-22, “Michigan Hall of Justice 2025a,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michigan_Hall_of_Justice_2025a.jpg

Lansing · Election 2026 coverage

Tags: Election 2026 · Michigan Supreme Court · Absentee ballots · Republican National Committee · Jocelyn Benson · Brian Zahra · Election integrity