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Investigation of State Voter Purge Goes PublicDecember 2, 2009
A recently completed state program to cancel Michigan voter registrations was flawed and may have
violated state law and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Unprecedented in Michigan,
the program was poorly planned, mismanaged, often hidden from local clerks, mostly invisible to
the media, and unaccountable to the public.
MERA is publishing these conclusions after an investigation that lasted for more than two years: The 2006 Michigan Voter Purge. Conducted by the Michigan Bureau of Elections from July 2006 until June 2009, the state program sought to remove invalid voter registrations. It was the first voter list maintenance to be centrally administered in Michigan and began when the Bureau sent more than 7 million voters a purportedly “educational” postcard. When the U.S. Post Office returned cards and indicated a wrong address, the voters’ registrations were marked for possible cancellation. The report found that the Bureau's use of 'educational' postcards "effectively masked the fact that the postcards were part of a voter list purge." The investigation revealed that the state program was very likely a response to partisan political pressure from the Voting Rights Section of the Bush administration’s Department of Justice. "Under pressure from the Department of Justice, Michigan’s state-level election officials chose by mounting the program to participate in a partisan attempt to manipulate the election system with minimal regard for voters’ rights or the responsibilities of local clerks." In the end, the program was expensive, with limited effectiveness and a significant error rate. The $2 million cost was ten times higher per tagged record than previous efforts conducted in targeted jurisdictions with the cooperation of local clerks. The program tagged 230,000 registrations for possible cancellation. 122,598 were finally cancelled in June 2009. Of those, the report estimates that about 2,611 (2.1%) were cancelled erroneously. The program’s cost was $16.31 per tagged record, as compared to $1.58 per tagged record in the earlier targeted approach. The program conformed to NVRA requirements to give voters notice and observe a grace period before finally cancelling registrations. But it failed to treat voters uniformly and it did not keep adequate records. Both are required by the NVRA. The program also flaunted Michigan laws that give local clerks responsibility for voter list maintenance. The report makes several recommendations. To avoid costly purges, the report suggests a “dynamic” registration process that ties voter records to other governmental record-keeping activities. Voter registrations would be automatically added or updated when other milestones in life are reached, such as high school and college registration, employment changes, auto and driver’s license renewals, registration for health care, or death certificates. To improve government accountability, the Michigan Secretary of State should:
Contacts: Jan BenDor, State Coordinator, 734-484-1744,
jan@bendor.org
Phil Shepard, Report Editor, 517-332-0761, shepard@acd.net The complete report is available at: Was Your Voter Registration Cancelled? Voters can easily check whether their voter registration
has been cancelled by calling their local clerk (city or township).
With MERA's help, the Advancement Project posted online a searchable database of voters who were still slated for cancellation by the Michigan purge as of August 2008: www.advancementproject.org/michiganvoters. Additionally, Advancement Project and MERA have provided a toll-free phone number for voters who may not have Internet access. Michigan voters may call 877-547-6260 to check to see if their names were targeted for cancellation. Voters that have any doubt about their registration should immediately visit their city or township clerk and complete a new voter registration form, if needed. Registration forms can also be completed at any Secretary of State Branch Office or downloaded at www.michigan.gov/vote and then mailed or delivered to the city or township clerk. Post-Election Audits in Michigan
January, 2009 Legislation for
Post-Election Audits in Michigan that MERA has written and proposed will
be introduced in the current legislative session by Rep. Rebekah Warren (Ann Arbor) and
cosponsored by Rep. Mark Meadows (East Lansing).
WHY AUDIT?At present there is rarely if ever any check on the accuracy of Michigan elections. Candidates are often loath to request recounts, even in very close elections, for fear of being labeled "sore losers" or "sour grapes." The Board of State Canvassers, under the leadership of Chris Thomas, head of Secretary of State Land's Bureau of Elections, has even asserted a dubious authority to reject legal recount petitions, at its sole discretion. (Minutes of the Board of State Canvassers, 11/27/06, p. 2). The paper ballots that are the official record are typically processed once electronically during voting on election day and then locked away. They can be consulted again only if a court so orders or a recount petition is approved.No election system is perfect, but electronic vote counting, as it is currently practiced, is particularly risky. The machines have significantly high failure rates. Oakland Co. Clerk, Ruth Johnson detailed machine failures there in 2006 and again in 2008. The machines are also riddled with security vulnerabilities that could be used to alter an election outcome. See, for example, MERA's photographic documentary of how to bypass the seal on a Diebold tabulator. The 2004 U.S. presidential election is known to have been altered, in part by manipulating the electronic vote count. How then can Michigan voters know whether the electronic vote count is accurate? How can we know the declared winner of an election contest actually won? As long as we continue to rely on electronic vote counting on election night, the only way to know is to audit the vote count after the election! Michigan Dems Back MERA Legislative Plan
Sat. Feb. 24, 2007. At the Michigan Democratic Party's state convention Saturday,
delegates resoundingly passed an election
reform resolution based on legislative proposals
developed by the Michigan Election Reform Alliance.Org (MERA). Drafted by Mary Shindell of Scio
Township, the resolution was also endorsed two weeks earlier at the county convention of the
Washtenaw party committee.
The resolution embraces these key elements of the MERA plan:
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