A Michigan storage shed was found to contain over 300 absentee votes from the 2020 election, according to a local news source.
The votes were successfully removed from a storage container in Genesee County, Michigan (which includes Flint and Thetford Township) by Thetford Township Supervisor Rachel Stanke.
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Stanke claims that she recently learned that specific ballots for 2021 exist. She promptly contacted the state’s attorney general and secretary of state to ask about their importance since she was a good citizen.
While clearing up a storage container in November 2021, a worker at the township clerk’s office discovered some long-lost votes. The conscientious employee informed their supervisor of the finding right away, but was uncertain if any further action had been taken. They then asked Stanke for help at that point.
Jocelyn Benson, the secretary of state for Michigan, sent Stanke in the direction of Jonathan Brater, the state’s director of elections.
Thetford Township was one of the few places in the state to undergo an audit, and Brater notified Stanke over the phone that the election was declared trustworthy. Despite the fact that Stanke had found the ballots, Brater’s attitude caused Stanke to feel “frustrated” about the situation.
“So I get off the phone with him,” Stanke said, “and you know, we sent a couple of emails. I was a little frustrated.”
After a few months, Stanke got in touch with the worker who discovered the ballots to see how things were going. Stanke promised to report the incident to the Michigan State Police notwithstanding Brater’s assurances to the contrary. The report was subsequently submitted when the employee consented to testify.
Later, while the storage facility was being cleaned up, the former deputy clerk of the township discovered the box of papers. Stanke informed the Michigan State Police of her discovery after claiming to have a “hunch” that the papers were the lost votes.
To get the most recent report, a state policeman went to Stanke’s home.
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The deputy clerk and the ex-employee who had discovered the missing documents were then discussed by the state trooper. The papers were eventually recovered from the storage containers as a result of this.
“He pulled out this box of documents that happened to be the 289 ballots,” Stanke said.
The ballots were sent to Michigan’s Secretary of State’s Office following an audit. But Stanke didn’t learn the results of this audit until he filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
Despite the incompleteness of the votes, Stanke’s investigation uncovered potential problems that demand additional investigation.
She described how Michigan’s absentee voting works: “The process of being an absentee voter is, you go get an application, complete your application, and you submit it to the clerk’s office. The clerk then is responsible to send you a ballot through the mail so that you can vote at home at your residence. So these people did their application, they just never received their ballot in the mail.”
A ballot can be declared invalid or “spoiled” if it is not received by the deadline. If the ballot is misplaced in the mail or is not delivered for any other reason, this action is appropriate.
“Of these 289 ballots, there was a majority of them that people did write that letter, from what we understand,” Stanke said. “But those people did get to vote. They spoiled their original ballot and they voted.”
It would be incorrect to minimize the significance of some spoiled ballots on the election. Stanke emphasized that the effect was not as constrained as had been assumed.
“This is where my biggest concern comes off of that state audit: 39 people never got a ballot to vote,” she said. “I am a person who says every vote should count. So you have 39 people in our township who did not even get a vote. I don’t think that there’s anything right about that.”
26 voters who did not tamper with their ballots still cast their votes in person, it was discovered during the audit. Stanke made this discovery known and stated that this was a cause for alarm. There were “red flags,” which meant that some people could have been allowed to cast two votes had the missing ballots been delivered as anticipated.
“So you’re telling me a person could have technically voted twice, right?” she said. “I mean, that’s what I’m getting out of it—they had two active ballots. They voted in person and they still to this day have an active ballot.
“It’s very interesting to me that there are these cracks in our system.”
Stanke claims that while the mismanaged votes would not have affected national elections, they may have had a big impact on the local election. Thetford Township Clerk Katie Hicks’ opponent lost by a slim margin of only 19 votes. These challenged votes may have been handled in a way that significantly altered the election outcome.
Hicks spoke to worried Thetford Township residents during a meeting amid allegations.
“Now this is all coming out and … I’m kind of happy that it’s coming out because the election is right around the corner again,” she said. “And it concerns me that this will take place again in 2024.”
Stanke concurred.
Even if there will be another election the next year, it’s crucial to remember that legal issues might take a long time to resolve. This has sparked worries that the underlying factors behind the current predicament could reappear in 2024.
By a margin of 2.78 points, President Joe Biden won Michigan, a vital battleground state in the 2020 election.
