Originally published June 19, 2023 12:57 pm PDT
Approximately 300 unmarked absentee ballots from the 2020 election were found in a storage unit in Genesee County, Michigan.
Thetford Township Supervisor Rachel Stanke uncovered the mystery in 2021, after being informed by a clerk’s office employee who came across the ballots while cleaning the storage unit.
Stanke took the initiative to contact Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, and the Attorney General after being made aware of the issue.
She was then connected with Jonathan Brater, the state’s director of elections.
According to Stanke, Brater confirmed that Thetford Township was among approximately 20 places audited in the state and everything seemed in order.
This information left Stanke feeling “frustrated.”
“And you know, we sent a couple of emails. I was a little frustrated,” said Stanke, recalling her feelings following the phone call.
She kept the clerk’s office employee updated on the situation, even offering to report the issue to the Michigan State Police if the employee agreed to testify.
The employee accepted Stanke’s offer.
Some months later, the township’s former deputy clerk stumbled upon the same box of documents while cleaning the storage unit.
Upon her “hunch” that these were the missing ballots, Stanke contacted the Michigan State Police again.
A trooper was sent to investigate, eventually retrieving the documents, a box containing 289 ballots.
Following this discovery, the ballots were audited by the Michigan secretary of state’s office, with the findings accessible only through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Despite the ballots remaining unmarked, Stanke identified several concerns related to the absentee voting process.
She outlined that after a voter applies for an absentee ballot, it is the clerk’s responsibility to mail it.
However, if the ballot isn’t delivered for any reason, the voter can request it to be “spoiled.”
Most of the 289 people did spoil their original ballot and voted.
However, Stanke pointed out, “39 people never got a ballot to vote. 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.”
Moreover, 26 voters who never spoiled their ballot ended up voting in person.
This situation prompted Stanke to raise questions about potential double voting, stating, “So you’re telling me a person could have technically voted twice, right?”
While Stanke admitted that these ballots would not have impacted national elections, she suggested they could have influenced local outcomes, particularly citing the case of Katie Hicks, who narrowly lost the Thetford Township Clerk election by just 19 votes.
“This is where my biggest concern comes off of that state audit,” Stanke said, drawing attention to the potential consequences of these oversights.
She expressed concern about the slow pace of legal resolution, implying that similar incidents might occur in the next election cycle.
Hicks expressed her satisfaction that the matter is being brought into the spotlight.
She emphasized the significance of the issue by acknowledging that the upcoming election is rapidly approaching and shared her concern that a similar occurrence might transpire once more in 2024.
“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 for 2024.”
