Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was in the hot seat on Tuesday as Republicans on the House Oversight Committee grilled her over upcoming fixes to the state’s new online campaign finance reporting system.
Benson and her team at the Michigan Department of State have been talking about problems with the new system since it was launched earlier this year – issues that have made it difficult for lawmakers, candidates and lobbyists to file finance disclosures and even more difficult for average citizens to track them for transparency’s sake.
Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the year, and the House Oversight Committee has spent considerable time parsing the issue. That led Benson to finally appear before the committee on Tuesday to talk about what’s being done to fix the bugs.
The secretary of state told reporters in a virtual press call held Friday that a corrective action plan, a new “go live” approval process and additional project management support were among steps her department was taking to fix issues with the new system.
Before taking questions from lawmakers on Tuesday, Benson presented updates to the system and the timeline for key fixes – much of which was already presented to the committee in May and again for reporters on Friday.
What was new in that information was that the vendor, Tyler Technologies, would be offering the state a $166,000 refund on downtime the state has experienced as fixes commence. It was previously reported that refunds would be issued, but at what amount was unknown until Tuesday’s hearing. Benson said that figure was based on the number of hours in which the system was not functioning properly or if the public search function was down.
Much of the back and forth between lawmakers on the GOP-led panel focused on whether Benson knew Tyler Technologies had acquired the company that owned the previous campaign finance system prior to entering a contract with the state to build a new one. Tyler Technologies also became one of the only bidders on the project.
Another firm bid on the proposal to build the system but was deemed unqualified, leaving only Tyler Technologies.
That was a point of contention when Benson’s chief of staff, Christina Anderson, testified before the committee in May.
There was also significant fire from Republicans on the panel, including its chair, state Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay), toward Benson, on why the new system was launched before it was ready for prime time, and whether the department was willing to walk away from Tyler Technologies and find a new firm if they couldn’t get the job done.
As to whether or not she knew about Tyler Technologies’ connection with the old campaign finance system before becoming the state’s vendor for the new system, Benson said much of the early work on the project was delegated to her team within the department.
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“That wouldn’t be something that would typically be brought to the granular level of my decision making,” Benson said.
DeBoyer countered by noting that the committee was talking about nearly $10 million of the state’s money, and that Benson should have been in the loop, let alone making the decisions on whether to move forward in contract with Tyler Technologies.
When pressed further, Anderson and Benson did note that Tyler Technologies disclosed its connection to the old system.
In defense of the decision to use Tyler Technologies, Anderson said that its contract was a flat fee structure for the product the company promised to deliver.
In the context of the issues that are currently plaguing the system, Anderson said if it gets to the point where they have paid Tyler Technologies in full and still haven’t received a fully-functioning campaign finance reporting system as promised, the company would still be on the hook to deliver without additional payments.
Tyler Technologies has also ramped up resources to the project without the state incurring any additional expense.
DeBoyer asked why Tyler Technologies couldn’t have just put the old system back into operation while it worked out the kinks in the new system. A representative from the company said that, from a technical perspective, it could have.
But Benson, Anderson and Tyler Technologies all insisted that the new system did work despite flaws and bugs that needed to be addressed. Benson said her team, with assistance from Tyler Technologies and the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget, were proactively testing out bugs in the system.
When Anderson noted that some of the same data lag and site issues that affected the old system were in part some of the same bugs they were seeing in the new system, DeBoyer scoffed and said it appeared the state got the same product it was trying to do away with.
Benson again said her department believes in continuous improvement, and that’s why it was so important to update the campaign finance reporting system with more robust and modern technology.
State Rep. Jaime Greene (R-Richmond) thanked Benson for getting the state and its lawmakers off a system that initially ran off a floppy desk using the antiquated MS-DOS operating system, but asked the secretary of state who was to blame for the recent failures.
Instead of passing the buck, Benson said it was on her and she continued to praise her team for their efforts.
The committee fielded only a few questions from Democratic members, a point that was raised by state Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) and state Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing), both of whom said they were frustrated that DeBoyer chose mostly members of his caucus to question Benson.
DeBoyer, Benson spar over gubernatorial campaign finance violation
As an aside, DeBoyer also grilled Benson over Attorney General Dana Nessel’s determination that the secretary of state committed a campaign finance law violation by holding her 2026 gubernatorial campaign announcement in the lobby of the building that houses her department.
Nessel’s office noted, however, that it did not have the authority to impose any civil penalties against Benson, nor any criminal penalties outlined in the law.
DeBoyer on Tuesday specifically questioned Benson on that point, and asked if she intended to turn the matter back over to the attorney general’s office to issue sanctions against her, or handle it internally and sanction herself.
Benson in response said she was “very flattered” that DeBoyer appeared to be hanging on her every word regarding the violation, but added that her department did not reach out to the attorney general’s office because the opinion clearly resolved the issue, meaning there were no sanctions or other penalties left to consider.
That said, Benson was adamant that even the secretary of state be treated like every other candidate in Michigan, and acknowledged that a violation had occurred.
Benson later approached the dais after the meeting to talk with DeBoyer, which appeared cordial but tense from afar.
Michigan Advance asked about the interaction following the meeting.
Benson said DeBoyer did continue to share his opinions about the campaign finance violation, but that she also used the opportunity to share with DeBoyer that she appreciated the work he was doing on the House Oversight Committee.
“What I was trying to communicate to him was that I want to work with him more. I want us to work together to make sure he feels he’s able to get information from our office in a regular manner, and that we have a collaborative working relationship,” Benson said. “So, that was my purpose in reaching out to him. And I hope he can see that we actually are more aligned and alike than he may realize.”
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