Overseas voter's wrongful removal from rolls tied to activist

In Waterford Township, an activist challenging names on the voter rolls caused at least one person to be wrongfully removed from the list and has cost the clerk’s office $10,000 to investigate his claims.

The active-duty Air Force officer’s name was purged last year, said Township Clerk Kim Markee, but her office quickly found the mistake and alerted Michigan’s Secretary of State’s officials on Dec. 15. That voter’s registration was restored in four days, she said.

Michigan’s law allows all residents who are registered voters to cast an absentee ballot, which includes those out-of-state, such as active-duty members of the military or snowbirds.

“A military voter deployed overseas has to complete a Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) form every year and submit it to us so we know where to send their ballot since they are overseas,” Markee said. “I wish more military personnel were aware of this process … so they can cast their vote.”

The military officer’s name was among more than 1,300 submitted by township resident Martin MacDonald, a 79-year-old retiree who believes the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Democrat Joe Biden's victory was upheld by the bipartisan Board of State Canvassers, judges and a Republican-led Michigan Senate review.

MacDonald is far from a retiree looking for a challenge. He volunteers for AARP to help seniors complete their tax filings and serves on two committees at his church. He lives in Waterford’s 8th District and was one of two people elected as a Republican precinct delegate in 2022.

He’s spent hours poring over databases in a bid to determine which voters he views as no longer eligible to vote so he can submit formal challenges to the clerk’s office.

State law MCL 168.512 states that challenges must not be “made indiscriminately and without good cause or for the purpose of harassment.” Someone who does that can be charged with a misdemeanor.

Markee, at the direction of the township attorney, spent about $10,000 hiring extra workers and sending certified letters through the U.S. mail to the people on MacDonald’s lists. State law bars municipal clerks from dropping voters from the rolls without independently verifying their status.

A change of address isn’t always proof that a registered voter has permanently left a community, said Cheri Hardmon, a Michigan Secretary of State spokeswoman.

“Someone may have changed their address for one purpose (such as a temporary work assignment, school, or military service) but they actually wish to continue voting in Michigan,” Hardmon wrote in an email to The Oakland Press, adding that some people may be temporarily living in other countries and are using their last U.S. address for voting residency purposes.

The state’s director of elections, Jonathan Brater, told Markee that certified mail returned to the township could be considered reliable initial evidence that a voter may have changed residency.

Markee said some people responded to the certified letters by calling to let her office know they had moved. In those cases, she removed their names from the township rolls.

The U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address program used to be a robust way to track when people moved, Markee said, but Americans move more frequently. She said MacDonald appears to have used that database for part of his research.

MacDonald said Markee “has been very nice and I have the greatest respect for her. … I believe she did everything legally.”

He said if he needs to submit individual affidavits, he will. Others in his group working to purge the voter rolls now include two notary publics.

MacDonald is working on two more lists of names and plans to examine addresses with five or more registered voters after that. He said he believes there are at least 10,000 voters who fit the description and that he’ll find close to 2,000 voters who need to be purged.

He’s now checking on voters who are 90 years old or older to verify if hey have died or moved.

Secretary of State spokesperson Hardmon said Michigan also actively identifies and removes registrations for those who have died. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Jane Beckering in Michigan’s Western District found the state is consistently among the most active at canceling a dead voter's registration.

Michigan ranks sixth in the nation for the number of dead voters’ registrations canceled in the 2016 election cycle, and in the top five for 2018, 2020 and 2022, Hardmon said.

Markee, who last year was president of the Oakland County Clerks Association, said people who register to vote but never cast a ballot clog the rolls. Keeping inactive voters on the rolls for two federal election cycles is good, she said, but people who are moving would help election officials a lot if they notify their clerk’s office to remove them from the voter rolls.

A federal voter registration roll would help clerks in every state efficiently double check voter lists, she said.

She’ll meet with the secretary of state officials in the near future to deal with the latest challenges.

“We want everyone that is able to vote, who is a U.S. citizen and 18 years of age to vote,” Markee said. “I think people need to understand that there is a mistake once in a while. This is a human process but we have checks and balances and we’re happy to correct mistakes.”

Municipal clerks need more help now than they did five years ago, she said, in part because of the expansion of absentee voting rules — which she praised as giving people more flexibility in casting a ballot.

“It’s wonderful when people say they want to work an election and help out, but when it comes right down to it, they don’t always realize how long the hours are on Election Day or they call out at the last minute,” Markee said. “We need more people to help with elections. In Waterford, we could use a few more Democrats.”

Recently, municipal clerks have been threatened and harassed by people angry about election results. An Indiana man will be sentenced in July after pleading guilty to sending a death threat to the Rochester Hills clerk, who has since left her job.

Markee said qualified clerks and election workers are needed to help promote democracy.

pmcnichol@medianewsgroup.com