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State Republicans cite Michlib

by: matt

Mon Nov 07, 2005 at 16:00:44 PM EST


This morning, a friend forwarded me the following spooky message:

Mark Grebner's (Dem. List Broker) Employee Reveals 50% of Detroit Voters Untrackable

Michiganliberal.com, run by an employee of Democratic list-broker Mark Grebner, has this to say about the QVF and Detroit's voter list:

Detroit's graveyard vote
by: matt
November 02, 2005 at 16:15:51 EST
Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie's inability to run a coherent election system has been front page news for several days now and in the interest of informed public debate, here's some good background on the situation from Practical Political Consulting partner Alan Fox (again, full disclosure - I work for PPC):
The Michigan Qualified Voter File has 636,000 Detroit records

22,000 are dead (according to the Social Security Death Index)

18,000 duplicate other records, some in the city, some out.

6,000 according to NCOA (The U.S. Postal Service's National Change of Address system) have moved out of the state

21,000 are untraceable -- on QVF but no voter history or other evidence they are really around, and with no DL or state ID ever recorded. That leaves about 570,000 that we carry on the (PPC voter) file. 337,000 of these show voter history recent enough to conclude they are voters still living at the address listed. "Recent enough" means 11/04 voters (318,000) plus 2005 registrations and other 2005 voters (19,000).

233,000 have probably moved or died. In some cases they belong in the duplicates count. Because the Detroit portion of QVF is missing many of the characteristics that allow matches (accurate year of birth; full middle names) they cannot be accurately described as 'moved' or 'duplicates...' but we wouldn't mail to them. They include a few thousand people in neighborhoods that simply do not exist any more.

For those of you that follow politics, this is very practical and likely accurate data, but not surprising. With Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie recent under investigation for a group of absentee ballots that went out with the votes already cast, the mayoral election should be watched closely.

Saulius "Saul" Anuzis
Chairman
Michigan Republican Party
2121 E. Grand River Avenue
Lansing, MI 48912
TEL: 517-487-5413
FAX: 517-487-0090

email: sanuzis@migop.org
www.migop.org

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Paid for by the Michigan Republican State Committee with       |
| regulated funds. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate  |
| committee. 2121 E. Grand River Ave., Lansing MI 48912-3299     |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

I am by no means happy about (apparently) giving Anuzis ammo to use in his future Detroit voter suppression efforts. But on the other hand...

(More below the fold)
matt :: State Republicans cite Michlib
Not a day goes by that I don't gnash my teeth about the 2000 Florida result and everything that has followed from that horrible event in human history. If there can be one lesson we take away from that experience, it's that we need clean, well-run elections. That applies EVERYWHERE – including our state’s largest city. To complain about the stolen election in Florida and then ignore Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie's poor management practices and her so-called "Ambassador" program, to me is blatant hypocrisy. I won’t do it.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about what’s actually going on.

For years, Michigan Republicans have tried to suggest that large numbers of dead people are voting in Detroit elections. It's a lie. They're not. What is happening is the Detroit City Clerk is simply doing a lousy job of removing people from the rolls that need to be removed. Okay, so the list is bad. Why does that matter?

It matters for two main reasons. First, it does allow more opportunities for voter fraud. Someone COULD vote using a dead person’s name. Or someone COULD be allowed to vote twice. However, trying to pull something like that off on a large scale would - to say the least - be difficult in the extreme. Too many people would have to be privy to such a plan, and very most likely clues would appear all over the state Qualified Voter File to suggest something was fishy.

Still, a dirty list does make it easier for a small number of people to cheat. An if we're serious about making every vote count (i.e., not diluting the value of legitimately cast ballots), reducing opportunities for fraud is generally a good thing to do.

Second - and perhaps more significant in practical terms - Detroit's messy list could be considered as an indicator of how seriously Ms. Currie takes the responsibilities of her office - which is to say not very. If Currie can’t do a better job at keeping dead people, people who have moved away, or people who are registered elsewhere off the rolls, what other functions of her office might be getting fouled up?

Here’s an example: in 2000 over 500 votes were cast in Election District 6, precinct 20 (according to state absentee records). Yet the Detroit Clerk's office only reported six people as having voted in the same precinct. What happened to the rest of the votes? In 2002, there were similar problems in at least two other precincts. Fortunately, those were uncovered by our firm before the election was certified. Granted, Detroit is a big city and running an election there is no doubt a very complex undertaking. But shouldn’t there have been at least some mechanism to make absolutely sure that every precinct was accounted for?

Now we have reports of people acting on behalf of Currie's office illegally completing absentee ballots for people in nursing homes or elsewhere. If this is true Currie and anyone else involved in this type of criminal behavior should be punished. There’s just no excuse for it. And yes, it’s possible this could cost Democrats some ill-gotten votes. That’s fine with me. If we as a party can’t win an election honestly, then we don’t deserve to win. End of story.
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State Republicans cite Michlib | 2 comments
The truth will set us free.... (0.00 / 0)
no worries. This is an issue that needs to be addressed. Nothing is foolproof, but certainly a goal of getting the dead voters off the rolls (or at least down to no more than 10% or so)is a good goal to shoot for. Imagine the extra postage expense if Detroit automatically mails out ballots to voters age 60 and up (like my hometown of Waterford, Michigan does ONLY after receiving back a request to do so for every election).

California mails ballots out for any reason, and I elected to always vote by mail so that i can vote without absorbing my free time standing in line or finding parking to go into the polling place.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for those voting reforms in Ohio to pass tomorrow!  :)

Re: State Republicans cite Michlib (0.00 / 0)
Matt, can't PPC or anyone clean out the voter file?  Or is there a specific statute that requires the City Clerk to clean their portion of the MI QVF?

My concern is that inaccuracies in the list give (as you insinuated at the beginning of your post) ammunition to the long-time lie used by State Republicans that Detroit runs fraudulent elections...regardless of their knowledge that this is not the truth.

The inaccurate QVF potentially hurts all state-wide Dem candidates, because Sauly-boy can always point to inaccuracies if the election becomes close...and with a Repub State Supreme Court...we open ourselves up to potentialy  serious problems.

Here's another question...since the Republican party has abandoned the City of Detroit and without representation in this election, for what reason does he have to put out a release on this?  He holds no dog in this hunt...It seems to me like a lot of white-man paternalism, doesn't it?  Maybe even a bit of chauvanism as well, seeing as Currie is a woman?  Although that type of an indict may be stretching things a bit...but doesnt this just stink of the usual Republican modus operandi, i.e., "let's play critic, without constructive means of fixing the solution..."

State Republicans cite Michlib | 2 comments

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