Major Fraud Risk: Jocelyn Benson Floods State with Absentee Voter Applications for Tens-of-Thousands of Dead, Non-Existent Voters

 Federal Lawsuit Flagged 33,000 Dead, Duplicate, or Non-existent Registered Voters in Detroit Alone – and Benson Just Sent an Absentee Voter Application to Each Of Them

LANSING, MI, May 21, 2020 – The Michigan Freedom Fund today sounded the alarm over the delivery of tens of thousands of unrequested absentee ballot applications to addresses of voters who have died, moved, or never existed, dramatically threatening the integrity of local, state and federal elections in Michigan this fall.

Benson announced earlier this week that her office would illegally mail absentee ballot applications to each of the state’s 7.7 million registered voters, but shocking court records in a federal lawsuit filed just months ago identified the presence of nearly 33,000 false, duplicate, or fraudulent voter registrations in the city of Detroit alone.

“Every absentee ballot application mailed to an address of a voter who died, who never existed, or who registered more than once dramatically threatens the integrity of local, state and national elections,” said Tony Daunt, Executive Director of the Michigan Freedom Fund.  “We strongly believe every voter should have the opportunity to cast a ballot – but only one.  Jocelyn Benson’s careless disregard for the integrity of our elections just flooded the state with tens-of-thousands of very real opportunities for election fraud.”

According to a lawsuit filed in December, Detroit’s voter rolls alone include 2,503 dead people, 4,788 voters registered twice and sometimes three times, 16,466 registerations with missing records raising questions about their legitimacy, and, astoundingly nearly 33,000 more registered voters than the city’s total adult population.

Mailing unsolicited absentee ballot applications to each of the addresses associated with these registrations instantly created more than 30,000 opportunities for voter fraud, individuals voting 2 or even 3 times, and for individuals to stuff the ballot box with votes they were not registered or entitled to cast.

In 2016, the contest in Michigan between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was decided by fewer than 11,000 votes – roughly only a third of the non-existent, duplicate, dead, or fraudulent voters in Detroit alone delivered an AB application by Benson.

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