DETROIT — Who do you think will show up on Election Day?
After last week's revelations that Chinese people will vote in Michigan's Nov. 5 election and their votes will be counted, Republicans continue to voice concerns about election security.
Republican state Sen. Ruth Johnson, a former secretary of state, said Republicans have reason to be concerned, saying data on about 35,000 people who registered to vote in 2024 has not passed the collection.
“So far in 2024, there will be 34,535 individuals whose name, date of birth, or Social Security number does not match any record in the Social Security database.” said Johnson, Holly's agent. “This is a significant increase compared to previous years and is very concerning to me.”
According to Johnson, the number was 54 during his time as secretary of state (2011-2019).
Michigan went from 54 people whose records didn't match the Social Security database to nearly 35,000 in just five years.
Democrats and Republicans alike are keeping a close eye on battleground states. Donald Trump won the Great Lakes state by about 10,000 votes in 2016, but lost to Joe Biden in 2020 by about 154,000 votes.
Johnson said that during his time, the secretary of state processed voter registration applications through the Department of Homeland Security, ensuring only citizens could vote.
Since then, Michigan has adopted same-day voter registration. The University of Michigan student, an illegal voter in Ann Arbor, registered the same day he voted.
“There is no system to verify whether ineligible people are registering or voting,” Johnson added. “The only way the UM student was caught is that he asked the clerk to return his ballot.”
State Sen. Lana Theis, a fellow Republican, agrees that election security is a concern in Michigan. She said the problem can only be resolved the way it was caused: by a voter-approved state constitutional amendment.
“We need to run another ballot question that negates what happened in 2018 and 2022, so that people don't have the ID they think they're voting on and the They'll be able to actually claim the citizenship they think they're voting for,''' Tice told the Post.
Michigan's voter rolls have been chronically bloated under Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Although there are only about 7.8 million Michiganders over the age of 18, 8.4 million people are registered to vote. Republicans sued Benson to remove voters from the voter rolls of people who had died or moved, but that effort was unsuccessful.
The illegal voters voted early rather than absentee, so their votes were counted. By the time illegal voters presented themselves to election officials, it was too late to get their votes back.
As of Election Day, 2.106 million Michiganders have cast absentee ballots and an additional 1.215 million people have participated in early voting, for a total of 3.321 million voters. Michigan needs 2,218 voters on Election Day to match the 5,539,000 voters in the 2020 presidential election.
Nate Silver, a leading pollster, said that if the former president wins Michigan, he will almost be guaranteed a national victory.
For the third consecutive cycle, Trump ended his presidential campaign in Michigan with a speech in Grand Rapids.
Mr. Johnson ran against Mr. Benson in 2010 and won, and went on to serve two terms as Secretary of State. Mr. Benson won the 2018 election and was re-elected in the 2022 election.
Benson's office did not respond to a request for comment.
