While Michigan officials insist double voting is “extremely rare,” others monitoring the state’s Qualified Voter File during the 2024 election have a different perspective.
“After reviewing the Qualified Voter File (QVF) of votes actually cast as of yesterday, Oct 29, 2024, the database identified 114,545 Michigan voters who have cast 279,113 ballots from multiple addresses across the state,” Republican attorney Matthew DePerno posted to X on Wednesday. “This results in 164,568 excess ballots as of 10/29/2024. Below is one Voter ID.”
https://twitter.com/mdeperno/status/1851652442288464365
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The post included a screenshot of the vote history for voter 159607018, showing that person voted 29 times using 19 different addresses in Detroit and Highland Park on Oct. 25.
Online sleuths posted images of several of the addresses, which include a now shuttered Operation Get Down residential halfway house in a former Detroit YMCA, a Catholic Charities building on the city’s famed Woodward Avenue, and the St. John Community Center.
Eric Daugherty, a news director for Florida Voice News, chimed in on X, as well.
“Trump team is on this, by the way,” he posted. “This SH better be sorted out before election day. It needs to either be proven and acted upon, or swiftly debunked.”
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The issue follows just a few weeks after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel insisted double voting is “extremely rare” during a press conference to announce felony charges against four St. Clair Shores voters who double voted during the primary, and three clerks that assisted them.
“Despite common talking points by those who seek to instill doubt in our electoral process, double voting in Michigan is extremely rare,” Nessel said. “There are procedures in place to ensure this does not happen and that is why it so rarely does.”
That incident prompted a statement from Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who alleged “anyone who tries to vote multiple times in an election will get caught and they will be charged.”
“We will watch closely to see how the facts bear out in this case,” she said. “But anyone who thinks they can get away with voting fraud in Michigan should know we will not tolerate any attempt to interfere in our elections.”
DePerno’s analysis of the QVF is particularly relevant in light of Benson’s fierce defense of the state’s bloated voter rolls, which include 8.4 million registrations for a voting age population of 7.9 million, or about a half million more registrations than Michiganders over the age of 18.
Benson attacked X owner Elon Musk after the world’s richest man questioned the disparity last week, and followed up her online attack with appearances on legacy media to denigrate Musk and spread election misinformation that contradicts the data on her Secretary of State website.
The Detroit News has since confirmed dozens of Detroit voter registrations challenged by the Election Integrity Force, a nonprofit “formed by citizens concerned with attempts to subvert the integrity of our elections,” do indeed involve dead voters, and folks registered at address where they no longer live.
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Charlie LeDuff has also weighed in on Benson’s claims on X, debunking her misleading statements that Michigan only has 7.2 million “active” voters out of 7.9 million eligible to vote, and 1.2 million are slated to be removed.
“It is the trolling secretary who is, in fact, incorrect. Her mathematical errors are many,” LeDuff wrote in a recent X post. “First, her own website shows the number of inactive voters slated to be removed from the qualified voters list is only 600,000, not 1.2 million, as she claims.
“Second, until they are removed, these ‘inactive’ voters are still active by the law, and at any rate, won’t be removed until after the election. Third, there are not 7.9 million citizens of voting age in the state of Michigan. There are 7.9 million adults, not all of whom are legally allowed to vote. Sheesh.”
LeDuff argued Benson’s election misinformation about the voter rolls, which she’s refused to vet despite multiple lawsuits from multiple plaintiffs, is part of a larger pattern of partisanship under her leadership.
“Remember: She set up an election disinformation snitch line. She illegally instructed poll workers to disregard signature discrepancies. She attempted to ban firearms from polling stations. She tried to kick Dr. Cornel West off the ballot while keeping RFK Jr. on the ballot because this would ostensibly help Kamala Harris,” he wrote.
“National Democrats—with the help of Benson—kicked in a million dollars to get overseas citizens absentee ballots even if they’ve never lived in the U.S. Benson claims there are as many as 265,000 such persons living abroad.”
Eyes are now on Benson to see what, if anything, she plans to do about DePerno’s allegations.
Nessel has already promised to take action, if his claims are confirmed.
“My office has been committed to pursuing, investigating and, when necessary, charging, cases of election fraud, and have done so when the evidence provides for criminal charges,” Nessel said at her recent press conference on the St. Clair Shores double votes. “Election integrity matters, and we must take these violations seriously in order to ensure we can trust the results on the other end.”