Nessel brings charges against St. Clair Shores voters, election workers accused of fraud

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wants to set the record straight. That's why she's charging four St. Clair Shores residents accused of intentionally voting twice in the August primaries and three election workers she says let it happen.

The voters committed election fraud when they sent in an absentee ballot and still voted in person at the polls, Nessel said at a Friday afternoon news conference. The election workers allegedly knew of their absentee ballots — an electronic voter information tracking system informed them — and let them vote anyway.

Nessel stepped in after Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido previously declined to charge the four metro Detroiters. In doing so, Lucido mishandled the case and said false, "harmful," and "alarming" statements to the news media, according to Nessel.

Lucido previously said the accused voters wanted to spoil their absentee ballot and vote in person. He said voters can spoil their absentee ballots on Election Day, Nessel said, which is "just factually inaccurate and also legally incorrect." Michigan law specifically prohibits voters from spoiling their absentee ballots on Election Day.

Lucido said he respects Nessel's decision.

“It is not unusual for the Attorney General to charge criminal cases in which a local prosecutor did not. I expect justice will be served," he said in statement, and declined further comment.

Election fraud is rare in Michigan. It's also rare for election workers to be criminally charged.

"We must take these violations very seriously in order to ensure that we can trust the results," Nessel said, noting that voters will make their way to the polls again in November for the general election.

"Already the nation's eyes are on our home state. Let me be very clear. We will not tolerate criminal manipulations of our elections in Michigan, and my office stands ready and willing to uphold that promise."

The alleged election fraud occurred at three separate voting precincts. Nessel said she doesn't know whether the accused voters and election workers were working together and said, as of now, there's no evidence to back that up.

The election workers charged were assistant clerks at the precincts, Nessel said, and elaborated: "These assistant clerks are not the volunteer election workers who greet you at the polls, but instead are municipal employees trained in election law and procedure with delegated authority by the elected municipal clerk."

An electronic poll book at each precinct shows whether voters have already cast a ballot. In the case of the four St. Clair Shore voters, the system indicated their ballots were already received by the local clerk, Nessel said.

Volunteer poll workers informed the three assistant clerks and were instructed to override the system and issue in-person ballots, Nessel said.

The assistant clerks then illegally changed the status of the four St. Clair Shores voters' absentee ballots in the electronic poll book from "received" to "rejected," Nessel said.

St. Clair Shores Mayor Kip Walby said the three people affiliated with the city who were charged are seasonal election workers, not assistant clerks, adding Nessel's facts "are wrong."

He said the three currently are not working and were not among the eight inspectors who used laptops in the affected precincts in the primary and were previously let go as a result of the situation.

"It's nothing but political theater. These people did not commit voter fraud," Walby told the Free Press on Friday adding the attorney general should drop the charges. "This should not be a five-year felony. Are you kidding me? It's a mistake."

He said the city will evaluate if city attorneys will represent the three workers. Personally, he said he believes the city has to defend them.

Two of the charged clerks are Democrats, Nessel said. She doesn't know the political affiliations for the third election worker or the four voters.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson responded to Nessel's charging decision:

“Voting more than once is illegal. Anyone who tries to vote multiple times in an election will get caught and they will be charged," she said.

Frank Prezzato, 68, Stacy Kramer, 56, Douglas Kempkins, Jr., 44, and Geneva O’Day, 62, all of St. Clair Shores, are each charged with one count of voting absentee and in-person, a maximum five-year felony, and one count of offering to vote more than once, a maximum four-year felony.

Assistant clerks Patricia Guciardo, 73, and Emily McClintock, 42, are each charged with one count of falsifying election returns or records, a maximum five-year felony, one count of voting absentee and in person, and one count of offering to vote more than once.

Assistant clerk Molly Brasure, 31, is charged with two counts of falsifying election returns or records, two counts of voting absentee and in person, and one count of offering to vote more than once.

Reporter Christina Hall contributed to this report.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: St. Clair Shores voters, election workers face fraud charges