Philip M O'Halloran Md v. Secretary of State

Summary

The Michigan Supreme Court held that most challenged provisions in the Secretary of State's 2022 election-challenger manual were authorized by the Michigan Election Law and exempt from formal rulemaking because they were interpretive or explanatory materials. The court invalidated the manual only insofar as it required challengers at absent-voter ballot processing facilities to direct certain issues to a liaison who was not an election inspector and allowed a liaison to refuse to record a challenge based on an assessment of its validity or merit. The court held that the electronic-device challenge was moot after statutory amendments and vacated the lower courts' rulings on that issue.