SECOND THOUGHTS

In our exuberance to tell a tale, it appears a recent bit about an attempt by  MAGA activists to challenge voter rolls in battleground states, including Michigan, misclassified the purging by Waterford Clerk Kim Markee of 1,000 people from township roles as illegal when it fact it backed up to a 1954 state law (MCL168.512) that provides for the removal of persons from the list of those eligible to cast a ballot in an election. Trump-associated activists (calling themselves “investigators”) have been digging up obscure and some say questionable laws here and in other states to target voter rolls, often using lists from  the post office of those who have asked their mail be forwarded (think “Snowbirds” and those in the military, for example) while still eligible to vote where they were registered. The 1954 Michigan law provides that if a local elector presents verifiable reasons to cancel someone’s voter registration, then a local clerk must by registered mail notify the voter who then has 30 days to respond to the claim or lose their right to vote – which is what Markee says she did late last year after seeking the advice of the township legal counsel. When Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office became aware of what had transpired, she told Markee to reinstate the voters, warning the state’s 1,600 local clerks this form of request for removal does not follow state and federal regulations. Evidently Benson’s office was unaware of the Waterford incident until contacted by The New York Times, according to an early March story in the newspaper. The fraudulent effort by MAGA election-denier acolytes is called Soles to the Rolls, which reportedly was endorsed earlier by state GOP officials caught up in the civil war of the state party. Even if not on shaky legal ground, the fraudulent purging effort by the “investigators” certainly doesn’t pass the smell test.