FACT FOCUS: Inactive voters on Michigan's rolls are misrepresented in suggestions of fraud

Less than two weeks from Election Day, posts circulating on social media claim that Michigan has 500,000 more registered voters than it has people eligible to vote, a point used to suggest possible fraud in the system. But the claim misrepresents Michigan's voter registration data, adding inactive voters to the total of those registered to make it appear there is an issue in the crucial swing state.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Michigan has 500,000 more registered voters than people eligible to vote, which creates the potential for widespread fraud.

THE FACTS: This is missing context. While the state does have more total voter registrations than eligible voters, that number includes voters who are inactive but cannot yet be removed from voter rolls under federal and state laws. The number of active voters is far less than those who are eligible to vote, and experts say there is no reason to believe that widespread fraud will result.

Still, numerous social media users have suggested these numbers are proof that Michigan is trying to cheat in the 2024 election. Among them is billionaire X owner Elon Musk, who has committed at least $70 million in support of former President Donald Trump.

“Jocelyn Michelle Benson, shame on you for blatantly lying to the public!” Musk wrote in an X post directed at Michigan’s secretary of state. “You only plan to remove ineligible voters AFTER this election. That necessarily means that there are far more people registered to vote than there eligible voters.”

The post had been liked and shared approximately 218,400 times as of Tuesday.

Benson responded on X, stating: “Let’s be clear: @elonmusk is spreading dangerous disinformation. Here are the facts: There aren’t more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 citizens of voting age in our state. Musk is pushing a misleading number that includes 1.2 million inactive records slated for removal in accordance with the law.”

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

There were approximately 7.9 million people of voting age in Michigan as of July 1, 2023. This figure is 500,000 fewer than the total registered voters — approximately 8.4 million. But that’s because the total registered voters include 1.2 million voters who are inactive. Those labeled inactive have not voted for six consecutive years or have not responded to a notice confirming their residency. Inactive voters are still eligible to vote.

Under state and federal law, voters are only removed from voter rolls after they have been sent a notice that their registration is subject to cancellation and two subsequent federal election cycles have passed without any response or voting activity. Voter registration cannot be canceled only because of a failure to vote.

This waiting period is why there are more total registered voters than eligible ones in the state.

More than 339,000 voter registrations are slated for cancellation in 2025 and more than 257,000 in 2027. As of March 2024, Michigan had canceled more than 800,000 voter registrations since 2019, including 273,609 for possible changes of residency, 532,513 for deaths and 16,716 at the request of the voter, according to its Department of State.

The Republican National Committee and two individual voters filed a federal lawsuit in March against Benson and Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater for allegedly failing to “maintain clean and accurate voter registration records.” The suit was dismissed on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering, who said the plaintiffs lacked legal standing and, regardless, did not state a plausible claim.

Michigan is hardly the only state with large numbers of inactive voters on its rolls. Every state — aside from the six which are exempt from the National Voter Registration Act — must send voters a cancellation notice and wait two federal election cycles before removing inactive voters.

The large numbers of inactive voters is a sign of robust list maintenance, according to David Becker, the founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, who served as a co-chair on Michigan’s Election Security Advisory Commission.

“You can only have a voter be inactive if you’re really engaged in list maintenance," he said.

States use different methods to determine whether a voter may need to be listed as inactive. In Michigan, for instance, if a voter surrenders their Michigan driver’s license in another state, indicating that they’ve moved, the Michigan Department of State is notified. Election mail returned as undeliverable can also be a sign that a voter has a new residence or has died.

Election experts say it can be difficult for officials to keep track of voters who have moved out of state since there is no federal voter registration database. The Electronic Registration Information System, or ERIC, lets states share data that helps them keep accurate voter rolls and can identify potential illegal voting. But membership is voluntary — ERIC is currently made up of 24 states, including Michigan, and the District of Columbia.

It is unlikely that voters who are on voter rolls in more than one state will try to vote twice, experts say. Becker, who spearheaded ERIC’s development, said “double voting happens extremely rarely.” ERIC is among the safeguards that helps detect such fraud.

Christopher Thomas, who served as Michigan’s director of elections from 1981 to 2017, said that “most people would view voting twice as probably a pretty stiff felony” and therefore not worth the risk.

“Based on attempting to be a rational person and having been in the field for 50 years now and having never seen anybody prove any massive fraud in a presidential election in that time period, I think a rational person would conclude that it’s not going to be a present issue,” he said.