Mishaps in Michigan spur Trump allies to spread misleading election claims

CNN
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In the closely watched battleground state of Michigan, election officials are under scrutiny, with isolated mistakes or missteps serving as fodder for election deniers and laying the groundwork for widespread doubt about the election results.

Several incidents this week — from an isolated instance of illegal voting to human errors by the secretary of state that have since been corrected — have shown how relentless conspiracy theorists are in trying to suggest that something far more sinister is afoot.

“It is already a stressful time for those of us who run elections and we are very concerned about this situation and stories like this getting out of control,” said Washtenaw County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum, a Democrat. “Psychologically, it’s stressful when people challenge the process, etc.”

Despite extensive transparency efforts and attempts to quickly set the record straight for the Michigan public, incidents online have already been amplified and suggest systematic fraud and fraud in the election, making it difficult to make initial misleading claims.

Although Michigan had a smooth and strong start to its statewide early in-person voting this week, the state has also faced several incidents that highlight how easily small cases can be blown out of proportion on social media to suggest otherwise.

According to the Michigan Secretary of State, there was confusion about the number of ballots cast in the state Wednesday morning due to a formatting error that has since been corrected, meaning no additional votes were counted.

Some of the confusion appears to stem from a post on X by Matthew DePerno, one of Michigan's most prominent election deniers. DePerno, a former Republican candidate for attorney general in Michigan, was indicted last year in connection with attempts in 2020 to illegally access and manipulate voting machines in hopes of proving the election was stolen from Donald Trump. DePerno has pleaded not guilty in the voting machine case.

DePerno's post, which has been viewed more than six million times, said his review of Michigan's Qualified Voter File – a database of voter data that tracks ballot submissions – found that a voter ID recorded a vote dozens of times at different addresses. DePerno added that the data in the spreadsheet showed over 160,000 excess ballots.

The Michigan Secretary of State's office attributed the confusion to a “formatting error” in the spreadsheet, which it said was corrected and inadvertently made it appear that the same vote was attributed to an individual's previous addresses.

“Each of these voters only had one vote for this election. This error in the data export process has been corrected and these erroneous additional rows no longer appear in the report,” the statement said.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump also attempted to address the allegations in a post on her admission that this was a glitch and not widespread fraud, buttressed statements by Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Asked about the clarifications from Trump and the State Department, DePerno told CNN: “If you think this is an export issue, then you're an idiot.”

DePerno's doubling down despite the explanation and correction underscores the difficulty of dispelling the doubts sown by those who spread allegations of wrongdoing on social media.

“The statement has much less reach than the original claim… When you compare the reach of government officials, it is impossible for information to compete with viral claims,” said Ben Decker, CEO of threat intelligence group Memetica. “This is sort of the canary in the coal mine of post-Election Day disinformation narratives.”

Far-right conspiracy site The Gateway Pundit also appeared to reject the official explanations, calling the incident an “election scandal” in a headline Thursday morning.

“Bless Lara’s heart, but this is unacceptable and probably inaccurate,” The Gateway Pundit wrote in response to her assurance that the issue had been resolved.

At the same time that DePerno's claims were making the rounds on social media, authorities announced that Michigan prosecutors had charged a Chinese citizen with voter fraud and perjury after he allegedly cast a vote in the 2024 election.

Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that the 19-year-old Chinese man who allegedly voted was a student living in Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan. Authorities said the man was not a U.S. citizen and therefore could not vote in federal elections.

Experts say illegal voting by non-citizens is extremely rare and when it does happen, it is usually caught quickly. The announcement by Michigan's secretary of state and attorney general, both Democrats, and local prosecutors in Ann Arbor emphasized the isolated nature of the case.

“Research in multiple states and across the country has found no evidence that large numbers of non-citizens have registered to vote. It is even rarer for a non-citizen to actually cast a vote. When it happens, we take it extremely seriously,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County District Attorney Eli Savit said in a statement.

It appears that the student's vote cannot be subsequently canceled and will be counted, as the ballots cannot be retrieved once they pass through the tabulator. Unlike absentee voting, ballots cast at in-person voting locations do not contain identifying information about the individual voter, making it impossible to determine which voter belonged to the student, county clerk Kestenbaum told CNN.

Experts said this was aimed at maintaining the secrecy of the vote and was a standard voting procedure. The case is still under investigation and it is not clear which candidates the student voted for.

“An in-person ballot is placed in a tabulator or ballot box and mixed with other ballots. This is to maintain secrecy so you can't ask later when voting who a particular pastor voted for, said David Becker, a former Justice Department proxy and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research.

An investigation is underway to determine whether the incident may have been an accident or part of a deliberate foreign conspiracy to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections. The Chinese national – a student at the University of Michigan – cast his vote on Sunday and contacted local election officials later in the day to try to get the ballot back, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Also this week, right-wing social media accounts began circulating comments made by Benson at a press conference on Monday in which she claimed there was a “nationwide problem” with some special Dominion machines designed to serve Michigan voters with disabilities would make it more difficult to split their ticket and vote for candidates from different parties.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who tirelessly shares potential election misinformation on his account, promoted Benson's comments in a post on X, asking Dominion “what's going on with the machines.” The post, which included a video of Benson's remarks, was viewed over 42 million times.

As conspiracy theories about Dominion's Voting Assist Terminal (VAT) devices began to spread, the company criticized Benson, accusing her of making “false and misleading” comments about alleged problems with its accessibility devices for voters with disabilities.

“The Michigan Secretary of State has confirmed that there is no issue preventing voters from making their preferred choice and casting their ballot,” Dominion’s statement said.

The voting technology company said it does not have machines in any other state that offer straight-partisan voting “like the state of Michigan does,” arguing that this is not actually a statewide problem as Benson had claimed.

Benson subsequently walked back her comments, saying through a spokesman: “Dominion has stated that the sales tax programming error only affects users in Michigan.”

Mishaps and problems related to Dominion machines often create a stir on social media – because many pro-Trump personalities are still spreading the lie that Dominion machines were involved in rigging the 2020 election in favor of President Joe Biden. A controversial right-wing sheriff from Barry County, Michigan, who also lied about Dominion's actions in 2020, posted on X this week about a “criminal investigation” he is leading into the company.

Despite recent challenges, election officials in Michigan are confident they are prepared to withstand efforts to undermine confidence in the results.

“We’re used to scrutinizing — everyone thinks they’re an expert on elections,” Kestenbaum said. “I don't spend a lot of time on worst-case scenarios… you can imagine things kind of descending into chaos. I don’t think that will happen, and I think the official, legal, bipartisan process we have will prevail over attempts to disrupt or undermine it.”

CNN's Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.