November 12, 2020
More than 10,000 people confirmed or suspected dead have returned their mail-in ballots to vote in Michigan, according to an analysis of the state’s election data.
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About 9,500 voters confirmed dead through the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) are marked in the state’s mail voting database as having returned ballots. Another nearly 2,000 are 100 years old or more and aren’t listed as known living centenarians.
The analysis was provided by Richard Baris, director of Big Data Poll.
The data indicates that somebody else was trying to vote on behalf of these people. The Michigan Department of State denied knowledge of such instances.
“It’s also entirely possible that some of them aren’t even real people,” Baris told The Epoch Times via email. “If someone is 110 or some ridiculous age, we should have their death record but do not.”
Americans older than 110 are exceedingly rare; only a handful of such seniors are known to live in Michigan.
According to the 2010 Census, there were 1,729 centenarians in Michigan (pdf).
When asked to comment on the data provided by Baris, Aneta Kiersnowski, press secretary for Pennsylvania Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, directed The Epoch Times to a “Fact Checks” page on the department’s website.
“Ballots of voters who have died are rejected in Michigan, even if the voter cast an absentee ballot and then died before Election Day,” the site says. “Those who make claims otherwise are wrong, and the lists circulating claiming to show this is happening are not accurate. Many of the lists do not contain enough information to accurately compare them to the Michigan Qualified Voter File. MDOS and news organizations have drawn samples and reviewed samples of lists claiming to show votes cast by deceased individuals in Michigan. We are not aware of a single confirmed case showing that a ballot was actually cast on behalf of a deceased individual.”
It’s not clear if their information pertained to the data provided by Baris, which hasn’t been circulated online.
Tracy Wimmer, Benson’s director of media relations, previously provided similar comments.
“Ballots of voters who have died are rejected in Michigan, even if the voter cast an absentee ballot and then died before Election Day,” she told The Epoch Times via email.
Baris wasn’t convinced though.
“While I’m open to the idea some of these have been rejected, I’m not open to any outright dismissal they all were rejected,” he said in a Nov. 8 tweet.
The data on how many ballots were rejected isn’t available yet, Wimmer said.
She said that “a ballot received for a living voter may be recorded in a way that makes it appear as if the voter is dead.”
“This can be because of voters with similar names, where the ballot is accidentally recorded as voted by John Smith Sr., when it was actually voted by John Smith Jr., or because of inaccurately recorded birth dates in the qualified voter file.”
This only happens “on rare occasions,” she said.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads in Michigan by less than 150,000 votes. The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in Michigan to halt vote counting until Republican observers are granted adequate access. The GOP-led Michigan legislature is investigating allegations of election irregularities in the state.
In a Nov. 9 lawsuit, a Detroit poll watcher alleged thousands of mail-in ballots from people who weren’t properly registered to vote were added to vote counts.
Poll operators were adding names and addresses to the poll book with made-up birth dates, such as 1/1/1900, he said in a sworn affidavit.
Baris said the mail voting data he worked from likely isn’t up to date enough to capture any irregularities that happened Election Day and after.
“If they did that on Election Day in Michigan, then we likely wouldn’t know until December,” he said. “If it is true, then they’d, unfortunately, get away with it in the short-term.”
President Donald Trump is challenging the results of the elections in several states where Biden holds a tight lead. The Trump campaign is alleging invalid ballots were counted for Democrats, valid ballots were thrown away for Republicans, and Republican ballot watchers were prevented from meaningfully observing the vote-counting process.
Update: The article has been updated with further comments from the Michigan Department of State.
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Posted by the C-VINE Dream Team
