By Kristine Christlieb, Senior Correspondent, Michigan Fair Elections | November 18, 2024
A volunteer poll challenger is disputing four ballots from a Michigan State University polling location.
Jackson County resident Julie Alexander, a poll challenger for the Republican party and former state representative, alleges that in four instances, multiple violations of state law occurred in regard to when voters should have been given provisional ballots.
Alexander was seated about 20 feet away from where voters checked in, and could observe when the process was taking longer than usual. When she had a question she was instructed to take it to the precinct’s election chair, so she did.
The first instance that Alexander observed, appeared to be a problem with a voter's registration. The election chair told Alexander the voter claimed to have registered weeks prior, but the voter’s information could not be found in the poll book, nor could the voter provide any receipt or documentation to substantiate her claim.
The election chair called East Lansing City Clerk, Marie Wicks, and Wicks said the location’s poll book was not up-to-date due to a programming glitch. Wicks told the chair that she could verify that the voter was registered in the clerk’s office poll book. The election chair told Alexander that Wicks authorized giving the individual a regular ballot.
Alexander did not witness the conversation between the election chair and Wicks. In fact, there were no witnesses to the conversation. There is only the election chair’s word that Wicks instructed her to give the voter a regular ballot.
Alexander officially challenged the ballot saying the clerk should have followed Michigan election law, MCL - Section 168.523a, which deals with situations in which a person’s registration does not appear in the poll book and no receipt or document exists to validate the claim of prior registration.
In those circumstances, Alexander claims that the law says to issue the individual a provisional, not a regular, ballot.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, provisional ballots “provide a fail-safe mechanism for voters who arrive at the polls on Election Day and whose eligibility to vote is uncertain.”
“The beauty of the provisional ballot is it allows a citizen to vote immediately, but it also identifies to the clerk that the individual’s eligibility to vote needs to be verified before the ballot can be counted,” explained Patrice Johnson, founder and chair of Michigan Fair Elections.
“Plus, if an individual is given a provisional ballot, there are ways for the voter to track the ballot and see if the registration was verified and the ballot counted,” Johnson said.
In Alexander’s first challenge a regular ballot was issued to someone who was not in the precinct’s poll book. Based on a private conversation and an election chair’s claim of oral authorization from the city clerk, that ballot was immediately counted as well.
Alexander reports the election chair was very accommodating and recorded the challenge, even offering that there had been an identical situation earlier in the day. Alexander then challenged that ballot as well.
Later on Election Day, two similar problems developed. Two individuals registered to vote at a satellite voter registration office at precinct 14. They presented themselves to vote without any documentation to prove their registration, and since the precinct poll books are not connected to the internet, their Election Day registrations would not appear and their voter registration information was not in precinct 14’s poll book.
Again, the election chair said she spoke with the city clerk who verified the individuals’ registrations and authorized issuing a regular ballot.
“Of course, we want these individuals to vote,” Johnson said. “But their ballots should be provisional until their registrations can be officially verified and the clerks have time check to be sure they voted in no other precincts.”
Overall, Alexander says she was impressed in this election cycle with the bipartisan cooperation. “I saw many bipartisan efforts. I was very pleased to see that.”
But Alexander also said the election chair disclosed similar problems “all over East Lansing.”
“Poll challengers play such an important role in our elections,” Johnson explained. “Their presence helps to ensure problems are documented and can, if necessary, be investigated.”
Kristine Christlieb serves as senior correspondent on MFE's communications team. She publishes Trust but Verify on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/trustbutverifyreport/p/voter-registration-blitzkrieg?r=2haa2x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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