LANSING – With increased but as of yet unsubstantiated talk of voter fraud from the administration of President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson last week sent Vice President Mike Pence a letter including a five-point plan to address the recent concerns with voting issues nationwide.
Johnson’s recommendations to the federal government, which she released Monday, include making Social Security data available, automatically removing voters registered in more than one state, sharing noncitizen information, creating an election crime database and requiring a paper trail from voting machines of tabulators.
In her letter, Johnson wrote that keeping election administration at the state level is important, but her recommendations are things that states could more easily do with federal action.
“I believe the most critical parts of election administration are getting eligible citizens registered to vote and ensuring that only those individuals who are eligible to vote appear on the voter rolls,” Johnson wrote. “The United States as a whole must strive for the cleanest voter lists to eliminate vulnerabilities to voter fraud. To allow an ineligible person to cast a ballot is to disenfranchise an eligible citizen.”
Johnson also noted the work her office has done to increase the accuracy in the state’s Qualified Voter File since she took office in 2011. She said her department has removed 1.1 million ineligible people from the voter rolls, including 482,427 deceased voters, 104,126 who were registered in two states and 3,359 noncitizens.
The office also has performed 1,400 post-election audits and sends out a reminder to Michigan residents when they turn 18 years old about registering and asks people who aren’t registered when they visit a Secretary of State office about doing so. Michigan has been named the top state for registering people to vote at motor-vehicle offices, a statement said.
Specifically, Johnson is asking for help from the federal government in removing the names of deceased voters from the voter rolls. She wrote that the Social Security Administration holds this data and it should be shared with state election officials at no cost, she wrote.
Johnson also wants Congress, with the support of the administration, to pass a law allowing a voter to be removed from the voter rolls at state motor-vehicle offices when they register or secure a driver’s license in another state. She said there is no process or law to prevent people from being registered to vote in more than one state, and the process should be automated.
The federal government should also share noncitizen information with state election officials, Johnson recommended. She said many noncitizens register in error when asked if they would like to register by clerks, and if they vote, they could face a felony charge or deportation.
A more comprehensive, national database on election related crimes is also needed from the administration or Congress to help election officials identify vulnerabilities and fix them, Johnson said.
“It would be invaluable to have a federal repository of election crimes categorized with information easily retrieved to help quantify and qualify problems,” Johnson wrote.
Finally, Johnson said voter tabulators or machines across the country should be required to have some form of a paper trail “that allows officials and citizens to review the results instead of having to blindly trust electronic devices.”
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