January 1, Michigan Rule Change Triggers Fraud Fears

Wyatt’s Take

• Michigan may delay removing inactive voters for 20 years.
• Activists say this makes fraud easier and challenges tougher.
• The feds and state are clashing over access to voter data.

Michigan’s Secretary of State wants to make it harder to clean up voter rolls, prompting warnings from election watchdogs. The changes would allow inactive voters to stay listed for up to 20 years before removal.

Patrice Johnson from the Michigan Fair Elections Institute said the new rules go far beyond what federal law demands, which marks voters as inactive after just four years. She warned,

“Michigan already has more than 558,000 inactive registrations, and inactive registrations are ripe for voter fraud. Benson’s new rules threaten to make the problem exponentially worse.”

Activists are also alarmed that the new process makes it much harder for citizens to challenge questionable registrations. Now, a challenger must personally know a voter is ineligible, not just rely on public data or information from neighbors.

If a challenge doesn’t meet this high bar, local election clerks don’t have to investigate further before rejecting it. Johnson pointed out that Michigan’s legislative committee overseeing rules is split evenly, making changes hard to block.

The Justice Department has stepped in, suing Michigan and other states for not cleaning voter rolls well enough. Federal officials say they just want to make sure only legal voters are counted and that states must obey the law.

Secretary Benson refused to give federal officials certain private information, saying,

“The United States Justice Department is trying to get me, Michigan’s chief election officer, to turn over your Social Security number, driver’s license number, and voting information. I told them they can’t have it.”

Federal law says states must keep voter rolls accurate and accessible. As these battles continue, many worry Michigan’s elections could become less secure.

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Wyatt Matters

Keeping elections honest is core to trust in government. Rules that delay fixing voter rolls just don’t sit right with working folks who expect fair play and clear rules. Middle America deserves confidence that only legal votes count and that every election is on the level.