Michigan election threats

Verification, database and rejection

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's voter registration verification system as "mixed," citing, "For driver’s license and state identification numbers, exact match is required along with last name, first initial of first name and “substantial match” of first name. Exact match is used for SSN match: last four digits, date/month of birth, and first/last name."

NVRA implementation

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's NVRA implementation as "inconclusive," citing, "Motor-Voter provisions implemented; extent of implementation of §7 public aid agency provisions unclear."

Student voting rights

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's student voting rights as "mixed," citing, "According to the Secretary of State, “a student can register in his/her campus community or in the jurisdiction where he/she resided before moving to campus.” A voter’s home address for voter registration must match the voter’s driver’s license address. A student identification is acceptable photo identification. The Secretary of State sends a special email message to students with registration and voting information. "


 * A Brennan Center for Justice examination of student voting laws rates Michigan's absentee requirements "very restrictive", citing, "Any voter who expects to be absent from their town or city of registration for all polling hours on Election Day may vote absentee. EXCEPTION:  All first time voters who registered by mail are required to vote in person."

Voter education

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's sample ballot system as "mixed," citing, "not required to send sample ballots to registered voters.


 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's voting machine voter education as "mixed."

Voter caging, purges and other eligibility challenges
"Michigan's Secretary of State violates federal law through two methods it uses to purge names from its list of qualified voters, a federal judge in Detroit ruled Monday. And U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy ordered Michigan election officials to immediately halt and attempt to rectify one of the two practices -- canceling voter registrations for those whose voter identification card is returned as undeliverable. Murphy ordered the state to remove the "rejected" marking in the qualified voter file for all persons whose original voter ID cards have been returned to the state as undeliverable since Jan. 1, 2006. About 1,500 people have been removed from the voter list in that manner this year, according to evidence presented in the case. Murphy said a second Michigan practice -- immediately canceling the voter registration of those who apply for a driver's license in another state -- also violates the National Voting Rights Act."
 * October 31, 2008: A federal appeals court refused to issue a stay in the earlier finding by District Judge Stephen J. Murphy. (See next item.) Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land had argued that the 5,500 voters purged from the rolls were lawfully removed, and that their reinstatement in time for Tuesday's election would be an undue burden. All names are now being restored to the voter lists, and a final ruling is expected by the court sometime in November.
 * October 13, 2008: Judge: Michigan illegally purging voters, From the story:

"'Newsnight investigative reporter Greg Palast travels from the Native pueblos of New Mexico to the war-zone of the 8 Mile neighborhood of Detroit to meet some of the three million voters who have been disappeared by a GOP campaign draining voter rolls of the poor, the dark-skinned, the defenseless.'"
 * Voter roll purges in very poor native New Mexican pueblos and Detroit's "war-zone" investigated by Greg Palast of the BBC. (October 11, 2008.) There is also a 14 min video. From the website:

"'The settlement acknowledges the existence of an illegal scheme by the Republicans to use mortgage foreclosure lists to deny foreclosure victims their right to vote.'" .
 * September, 2008. Voter caging. There are reports from multiple sources that the Michigan Republican party was preparing an attempt to disenfranchise (mostly black) voters whose houses have been foreclosed, saying they no longer live at that address and therefore are not qualified to vote. In a settlement of a lawsuit seeking to prevent Michigan Republicans from using foreclosure lists to challenge voters, the Republicans admitted the existence of the scheme. From a settlement statement by the Michigan Democratic Party ,

Voter intimidation and deception

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's poll challenger system as "unsatisfactory," citing, "Any voter in a municipality can challenge the registration of another voter by filing an affidavit with the clerk, who will send the voter a notice by mail. The voter must respond within 30 days of having received the notice; if he/she fails to appear or cannot prove his/her eligibility to vote, then the registration is cancelled. There is no stated deadline by which challenges must be filed. It is a misdemeanor to make challenges “indiscriminately and without good cause or for the purposes of harassment”."

Poll worker training, recruitment and distribution

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's poll worker recruitment as "unsatisfactory," citing, "State law requires three poll workers per precinct. Those first three workers must be qualified voters; however, after those three, 16 or 17 year olds may be appointed as poll workers. Counties are responsible for poll worker recruitment, and, to our knowledge, there are no statewide recruitment efforts."


 * Michiganders reported thousands of problems at polls due to "faulty machines, poll workers who are not equipped to fix them and voters who are concerned with whether or not their ballots will be counted." Residency requirements also created confusion. Problems resulted in some poll goers having to walk away without voting.

Voter ID requirements

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's voter registration voter identification system as "inconclusive," citing, "Voters must either provide photo identification or sign an affidavit stating that they do not have a photo identification."

Voting machine and ballot distribution

 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's voting machine distribution as "unsatisfactory," citing, "All DREs were phased out in favor of optical scan machines by 2006. No law pertaining to allocation of optical scanners."

Malfunctioning voting machinery

 * For an extensive log of voting machine problems, see the VotersUnite! report on election incidents.


 * In a letter sent on October 24, 2008 but not disclosed until November 3rd, Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson questioned the reliability of the ES&S M100 machines that tabulate the vote. Johnson, who had noted results on the same set of ballots varying over time (which she attributed to dust build-up), requested authority via statute or directive to conduct random tests.

Eligibility verification
"While Michigan’s highly developed statewide database keeps the state’s provisional balloting rate relatively low, Michigan nonetheless rejected over 80 percent of its provisional ballots in 2006, the second highest rate in the country."
 * According to an October, 2008 Demos study, ,


 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's provisional ballot verification system as "mixed," citing, "The ballot is counted if the voter’s identity and registration can be verified against the statewide voter registration database. If the voter cast a provisional ballot because he/she failed to present identification at the polling place, he/she may submit, via fax, mail, or in person, an acceptable form of identification and document confirming his/her residence within 6 days of the election.132"

Ballots cast in wrong precinct
"Of those provisional ballots rejected, 24.4 percent were thrown out because they were cast in the wrong precinct while another 8.5 percent did not contain the voter’s signature."
 * According to an October, 2008 Demos study, ,


 * A Common Cause examination of voting preparedness rated Michigan's system for provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct as "unsatisfactory," citing, "Ballots cast in the wrong precinct will not be counted, but before they are thrown out, it must be determined that the voter was not assigned to the wrong precinct. By law, poll workers must attempt to direct voters who appear at the wrong precinct to the correct precinct."

External articles
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.
 * Ian Urbina, "States’ Purges of Voter Rolls Appear Illegal," New York Times, October 9, 2008. Mentions Michigan as one of the states.

[. . .] The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.