| Jocelyn Benson | |
|---|---|
| Democratic candidate for Michigan Secretary of State |
|
| Election date November 2, 2010 |
|
| Opponent(s) | Ruth Johnson |
| Incumbent | Terri Lynn Land |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Ryan Friedrichs |
| Residence | Detroit, MI |
| Alma mater | Wellesley College, Oxford University, Harvard Law School |
| Profession | Associate Law Professor, author |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Website | www.VoteBenson.com |
Jocelyn Benson is an election law professor and educator from Michigan. She is currently a full time Associate Law Professor at Wayne State University Law School and was the Democratic Party's nominee for Michigan Secretary of State in the November 2, 2010, election. She is the Founder and Director of the Michigan Center for Election Law.
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Benson graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College, 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. She subsequently earned her Master's in Sociology as a Marshall Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford in the United Kingdom, conducting research into the sociological implications of white supremacy and neo-Nazism. Prior to attending law school, Benson also lived in Montgomery, Alabama, where she 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.
Benson received her J.D. from Harvard University Law School, where she was a general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.[1] From 2002-2004, she served as the Voting Rights Policy Coordinator of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, a non-profit organization that sought to link academic research to civil rights advocacy efforts,[1] where she worked on the passage of the federal Help America Vote Act.
Immediately upon graduation from Harvard Law, Benson moved to Detroit to serve as a law clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
After working with the Michigan Democratic Party's election protection effort in 2006, Benson developed and supervised two statewide nonpartisan election protection efforts in Michigan in 2007 and 2008.[1] She worked with Michigan Democratic Party's election protection effort in 2006. During the 2008 election, she was called to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee,[2] where she called on Secretary Terri Lynn Land to ban the use of foreclosure lists to challenge voters' eligibility on Election Day.[3] She is a frequent commentator on voting rights and election law on local news and radio broadcasts.[4][5][6]
In 2007, Benson worked with several groups to successfully block the closure of a Secretary of State branch office in Buena Vista Township, Michigan. The U.S. Department of Justice, under then-President George W. Bush, concluded that the closure of the office would violate the Voting Rights Act.[7]
In March 2010, Benson published her first book, State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process. The book highlights best practices of Secretaries from throughout the country and seeks to inform voters about how Secretaries of State from either side of the political spectrum can work to advance democracy and election reform.[8] After working with Secretaries of State from around the country while researching the book, Benson was inspired to run for the office in her home state of Michigan.
After receiving support for her proposals for early voting and no-reason absentee voting at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention [9] on February 21, 2009, Benson filed paperwork in March 2009, with the Secretary of State to create an exploratory committee for a campaign for Michigan Secretary of State in 2010.[3]
With the formation of the committee, Benson began a listening tour throughout the state to discuss what can be done to improve elections and the other functions of the Secretary of State’s office.[10] After spending several months gaining support in counties throughout the state, she made her official announcement to run for the Democratic nomination on October 6, 2009.[11]
On April 17, 2010, the Michigan Democratic Party membership endorsed Benson to be the Democratic nominee in the November election. The Michigan Democratic Party officially nominated Benson for Secretary of State on August 29, 2010. Benson was narrowly defeated by Ruth Johnson, but earned more votes than any other Democrat on the ballot in Michigan in 2010.[12]
Benson is currently an Associate Law Professor at Wayne State University Law School, where she teaches Election Law and Education Law and serves as the Associate Director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.[13] She is also an appointed member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Election Law.[1]
Benson is also the founder and current director of the Michigan Center for Election Law, which hosts projects that support transparency and integrity in elections. In 2011 the Center hosted Michigan's first ever "Citizens' Redistricting Competition,"www.michiganredistricting.org providing an opportunity for Michigan citizens to access software and draw their own redistricting maps for the state.[14]
In 2011, Benson was selected to serve with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the national board of directors of iCivics, Inc., a nonprofit created by Justice O'Connor to improve civics education throughout the country.[15]
Benson lives in Detroit, Michigan with her husband Ryan Friedrichs.[16] A long-distance runner, she averages two full marathons per year, most recently completing the Florence Marathon in the fall of 2011. In May 2009, she ran the 2009 Boston Marathon.