Video: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel holds late Friday press conference.
By Kim Jones, MFE correspondent | October 7, 2024
Attorney General Dana Nessel announced during a press conference on October 4 that her office was filing charges against four St. Clair Shores citizens and three assistant clerks. The Friday afternoon announcement came on the heels of a Gateway Pundit article that reported that the state’s official voter rolls showed 6,126 duplicate votes in the state’s Primary Election, as of September 2024, according to Check My Vote.
Nessel explained, “Mistakes are made… Election law is hard” during the press conference aired on Fox 2 Detroit. The A.G. was referencing a decision of the Office of the Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido not to file charges against four St. Clair Shores citizens in connection with the August 6 Primary.
A.G. Nessel announced felony warrants for the four citizens, and each warrant cited two charges. The first, for voting twice, once by absentee ballot and the other in-person. The second cited offering to vote more than once. If found guilty of the charges, the defendants face imprisonment of up to five years for the first charge and up to four years for the second. Three assistant clerks were also charged as aiding and abetting. The felony warrants against the assistant clerks cited the same charges for handling each citizen’s duplicate vote along with a third count for falsifying election returns. The third count carries up to an additional five years in prison.
A month ago, Prosecutor Lucido announced that his office did not plan to authorize charges against the voters after his office had conducted a “thorough review” and concluded “probable cause did not exist to believe that a crime had occurred.” The review also concluded there was no criminal intent. Black’s Law Dictionary describes the standard of probable cause as “having more evidence for than against.” (Black’s Law Dictionary… abridged sixth edition, p. 834. West Publishing Co., 1983 and 1991.)
During Nessel’s press conference, she cited facts relevant to her decision to pursue double-voting charges. “The volunteer election workers (not charged) ... saw the warnings in the electronic pollbook that indicated that the voter had already voted by absentee ballot and that the ballot had been received and approved for tabulation by the local clerk.”
Nessel said, “the election workers on site contacted a designated municipal call-in center seeking direction from the Assistant Clerks and were instructed to issue the would-be voters a second ballot and to override and ignore the very clear warning displayed in the pollbook… their votes were subsequently counted on the in-person election day vote totals.”
Nessel described her disagreement with Lucido’s recitation of the process, saying, “I thought it was really important that we correct the record.” (29:00)
CheckMyVote.org’s September report showed 6,126 duplicates during the August Primary Election. Then the October QVF changed voter histories and the number of duplicate votes during the Primary decreased to 109.
Tim Vetter, lead data analyst for United Sovereign America, expressed concern. “Voter histories are like bank accounts,” he said. They are records that “should never change.” He warned that it was a felony to make even one change to the voter rolls, post-certification.
In regard to the duplicate voting charges levied by the A.G.’s office, Nessel stated one “cannot spoil your absentee ballot on Election Day.” Looking toward the upcoming November 5 Presidential Election, she said, “a ballot which has been received by the clerk’s office cannot be legally spoiled after Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, for this upcoming general election.”
Nessel encouraged voters to check the status of their absentee ballots at mi.gov/vote.
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