Michigan Judge Orders Clerks Statewide to Keep Election-Day Pollbook Data; Justice Department Filing Questions State's Voter List

A Michigan judge has ordered the state's election officials to tell every local clerk to keep the electronic pollbook data from the Nov. 3 general election, setting aside for now a state rule that requires the files to be deleted within days of certification.

Court of Claims Judge Michael J. Riordan granted the statewide temporary restraining order on Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by Bridgewater Township Clerk Michelle McQueer, joined by the Republican National Committee and the Michigan Republican Party. In the same order, he accepted a statement of interest from the U.S. Department of Justice, which told the court it would not treat deletions under the rule as a criminal enforcement priority this year but questioned whether Michigan's voter list complies with federal law.

What the Order on Electronic Pollbooks Requires

The order directs Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Elections Director Jonathan Brater and the Department of State "to instruct all local election officials to retain the EPBs from the November 3 General Election." Clerks must move the pollbook data from precinct laptops onto encrypted flash drives and "securely store those flash drives until further order of this Court." The state may not enforce the deletion rule while the case is pending.

"The Court does not anticipate the full resolution of this matter before the General Election," Riordan wrote. The order states that it is "not a final order resolving all issues in this matter." On Oct. 5, the court had allowed the RNC and the state party to join the case but denied their first request for a statewide order.

Electronic pollbooks are laptops used at each precinct to process voters on Election Day. The state rule, Mich. Admin. Code R 168.48, took effect Oct. 23, 2025, and says the pollbook software and associated files "must be deleted from all devices by the seventh day following the final canvass and certification of the election," unless a recount is under way, a post-election audit has been scheduled, or a court or the Secretary of State has stayed the deletion.

McQueer's suit, filed Aug. 12, argues the rule conflicts with a 1960 federal law requiring election officials to "retain and preserve" records relating to "any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting" for 22 months after a federal election. Willful failure to do so carries a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in prison, or both. The court entered a narrower order in August requiring McQueer to keep her own pollbook from the Aug. 4 primary.

What the Justice Department Told the Court

The state has argued that all of the pollbook data is first uploaded to Michigan's Qualified Voter File, so nothing is lost, and that deleting the extra copies protects voters' private information and saves storage costs, according to the federal filing's description of the state's position.

The Justice Department's statement of interest, signed by the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan and the Civil Rights Division, said that if the state's description is accurate and all the data is preserved, such deletions "would not constitute conduct the Attorney General would evaluate for criminal prosecution after this midterm election." It added that "local clerks were put in a difficult position" by the rule.

The filing also argued that the state's description raises "novel questions" under the Help America Vote Act, which requires "a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list." By sending precinct-level portions of the list to local officials on Election Day, the filing said, the state had "unleashed disjointed and disconnected" voter lists across Michigan.

The Department of State said in a statement to Michigan Advance that the court "did not rule on the merits" and that it was reviewing the ruling.

Sources: Michigan Court of Claims, McQueer v. Benson, No. 26-000172-MZ, Order Granting Statewide TRO, Oct. 27, 2026 (https://www.courts.michigan.gov/4aadd6/siteassets/case-documents/uploads/coc/2026/26-000172-mz/2026-10-27-26-000172-mz-62-order---20261027-ord-granting-tro.pdf); United States' Motion for Leave to File Statement of Interest and Statement of Interest, Oct. 15, 2026 (https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/26-10-15-McQueer-United-States-Motion-for-Leave-to-File-Statement-of-Interest.pdf); Michigan Advance, Oct. 28, 2026 (https://michiganadvance.com/2026/10/28/clerks-must-temporarily-retain-electronic-pollbook-after-nov-3-election-court-of-claims-rules/). Cover photo: Michigan Hall of Justice, Lansing, by Antony-22, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.