Conservative activists seize on 'formatting error' in Michigan voter data

Conservative activists searching for traces of voter fraud are seizing on posts made on social media misinterpreting Michigan’s voter file.

In a post to X that had been seen more than 5 million times as of Thursday, conservative activist, attorney, and former attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno shared an image of what he said was data he received as part of a FOIA request containing a voter file. The post shows various addresses of a Detroit man in his late 40s, who was not able to be reached by phone. Deperno alleged it was an example of somebody’s votes being counted multiple times.

The Secretary of State said Wednesday afternoon the qualified voter file only allows one ballot to be accepted per voter in every election — a formatting error has been corrected.

“Recently, the Bureau of Elections identified a formatting error in a routine report that shows the list of voters who have cast a ballot in this election either by absentee or early voting ballot. The formatting error in the data export process generated a line in the exported report for each formerly associated address of each individual voter listed, resulting in the same ballot for the same voter appearing on multiple lines of information all associated with one unique Voter ID.

Each of these voters only had one vote recorded for this election. This error in the data export process has been corrected and these erroneous extra lines no longer appear on the report,” Cheri Hardmon, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office said in a statement.

Michigan’s Qualified Voter File (QVF), is the voter registration database that includes name, address, driver's license number, precinct number, signature and voting history for each voter in the state. It contains a voting history of registered voters.

A failed lawsuit that made false claims that vote-counting equipment manipulated 2020 election results in Antrim County garnered DePerno a large following among conservative activists and an endorsement from former president Donald Trump.

DePerno, of Portage, was the Michigan GOP nominee for attorney general in 2022, losing to Attorney General Dana Nessel, the incumbent Democrat, by about 8 percentage points.

DePerno is awaiting trial on charges related to allegedly breaching voting machines following the 2020 presidential election.

“I think Benson needs to explain,” DePerno told the Free Press. “Either there is voter fraud happening or she’s incompetent and cannot manage the QVF… I’m not saying what the data means, only what the data is. She has to explain it.”

The Secretary of State’s office released a statement on social media referencing DePerno’s viral post saying the post incorrectly claimed that individual voters were casting multiple ballots.

Election officials are under intense pressure from conservative activists to respond to claims of fraud after Trump falsely claimed that the 2020 election in the state was rife with fraud and corruption. Detroit police presence has increased around the Grand Blvd. elections department with officers stationed at the early voting center.

DePerno’s post garnered attention from high-profile Republicans including Republican National Committee Co-chair Lara Trump and Sidney Powell, a Texas attorney who faced sanctions in Michigan and elsewhere after forwarding fraud theories in the 2020 election.

Posts like DePerno’s have been gaining attention on Elon Musk’s X in the lead-up to the election, many putting scrutiny on the large number of people on Michigan’svoter rolls, which state officials say does not indicate fraud.

“Expect bad actors to take minor issues and use them to fuel baseless conspiracy theories in order to further their own agenda,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a post Thursday morning. “Don’t buy into their attempts to create chaos, confusion and fear.”

GOP lawsuits regarding election integrity are piling up in Michigan and around the nation, something as Democrats argue are efforts to sow doubts ahead of Nov. 5.

Elected Republicans in Michigan mostly backed away from claims election fraud had a significant impact on Michigan’s 2020 election following a report led by Republican Sen. Ed McBroom and his Senate Oversight Committee that found no basis for the fraud claims.

Samuel J. Robinson is a freelance contributor to the Free Press focusing on election misinformation. Reach him on X: @samueljrob, or read more about how to submit misinformation you spot to our tracker here.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: No, Michigan's Qualified Voter File (QVF) doesn't show election fraud