Possible Voter Fraud in Detroit: Problems in 60 Percent of Precincts

Voting machines in 37 percent of Detroit’s precincts that counted too many votes on Election Day spurred Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s office to call for an audit, according to a Tuesday report from the Detroit News.

Wayne County elections officials gathered data showing vote tallying discrepancies in 248 of Detroit’s 662 precincts in which more ballots were tabulated than the number tallied by poll workers. In addition, 144 Detroit precincts reaped too few votes compared with the numbers tallied by poll workers. Overall, nearly 60 percent of Detroit’s precincts experienced concerning irregularities and potential voter fraud on Nov. 8.

“There’s always going to be small problems to some degree, but we didn’t expect the degree of problem we saw in Detroit. This isn’t normal.”

Michigan state Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton) deemed the audit call “a good place to start” in effectively determining whether election workers “followed the correct procedures” or “fraudulent procedures.”

“The state needs to investigate whether or not the cause of the ballot count discrepancies in Detroit and elsewhere throughout the state are the result of fraud or negligence,” Colbeck said in a press release. “While some inadvertent human error can always occur, when it is identified in 59 percent of Detroit’s 662 voting precincts, the sanctity of our democratic voting process demands an investigation.”

The problem wasn’t just confined to Detroit. Approximately 10.6 percent of the precincts in Michigan’s 22 counties were ineligible for a recount when Green Party candidate Jill Stein called for one in the state, due to state laws that prevent ballots from “unbalanced” precincts or precincts with broken seals from undergoing a recount if the numbers don’t correlate. A Michigan Supreme Court judge struck down Stein’s recount request in Michigan Friday.

“We’re assuming there were [human] errors, and we will have discussions with Detroit election officials and staff in addition to reviewing the ballots,” Michigan Elections Director Chris Thomas told the News.

Krista Haroutunian, chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, added,”There’s always going to be small problems to some degree, but we didn’t expect the degree of problem we saw in Detroit. This isn’t normal.”

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton far outperformed President-Elect Donald Trump in both Detroit and the entirety of Wayne County, although Trump carried the state by more than 10,700 votes. But the tallying discrepancies in so many of Detroit’s precincts have spurred 23 state senators to demand an investigation into Wayne County.

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“If the investigation identifies voter fraud, the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If the investigation identifies negligence, we need to define and implement a corrective action plan that will be faithfully monitored to preclude future irregularities,” Colbeck added.

In one of the most shocking cases, a ballot box in one Detroit precinct contained a mere 50 ballots despite records indicating 306 ballots were cast.

City officials claim that those ballots were never removed from their locked bin.

“That’s what we’ve been told, and we’ll be wanting to verify it,” Michigan Secretary of State Fred Woodhams told the News. “At any rate, this should not have happened.”

“If the investigation identifies voter fraud, the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If the investigation identifies negligence, we need to define and implement a corrective action plan that will be faithfully monitored to preclude future irregularities,” Colbeck added.