Prelude To Detroit: Have No Fear! Jocelyn Benson Will Be Working With Janice Winfrey To Thwart Another Great Detroit Election Facepalm - 2016 Revisited

Yup....

Jocelyn Benson is going to be working with Janice Winfrey to thwart another Great Detroit Election Facepalm.

Detroit, state to jointly oversee November election in city after outcry over Aug. primary

Yippers...

Benson: 500,000 could be removed from Michigan's voting rolls, but not before Nov. 3

Roughly 500,000 absentee ballot applications were returned between May and August for reasons that included the individuals had since died or moved, but any outdated names can't be removed from voter rolls until after the Nov. 3 election, according to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office. 

In a Thursday letter to Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, Benson said the Michigan Bureau of Elections will sort through the returned applications and distribute them to local clerks for voter list maintenance. 

Benson has been criticized for the May mailing to 7.7 million qualified voters in Michigan because some applications went to people who had long since moved or died. But the Detroit Democrat has maintained in the months after the mailing that the returned applications would help to guide efforts to clean up the state's voter rolls of transient or deceased individuals still on the state lists. 

"We expect the majority of maintenance will take place after the Nov. 3 election, when federal law no longer limits such action," she said, referring to federal election law preventing list maintenance 90 days before an election.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson plans to mail postcards over the next week to 4.4 million registered active voters who have not yet requested an absentee ballot to remind them they have the opportunity to do so.

The applications were returned for "any reason postal mail is returned to sender," including the individual is dead or moved, said Tracy Wimmer, a spokeswoman for Benson's office.

Former Secretary of State Johnson on Wednesday estimated there likely were another 300,000 absentee ballot applications sent to people who are dead or moved that were not returned to the Bureau of Elections. 

Johnson has argued Benson should not have sent applications to people on the "inactive" or "countdown" list — a list of people believed to have moved but required by federal law to stay on the Qualified Voter File for at least two federal election cycles to verify their departure from the state. At the least, the Republican lawmaker said, those individuals should have been sent postcards instead of the actual ballot application.

"It’s always been a weakness in the system, but I’m afraid that the weakness has gone from something minor to people feeling encouraged to vote from other states," Johnson said.

On Aug. 17, Johnson requested Benson conduct an audit of the primary election to determine how many people listed as having moved in the "countdown" file had successfully voted from another state.

Benson's legislative policy director Adam Reames responded via email shortly after 7 p.m. Friday and argued people on the countdown list remain eligible to vote. He said signatures on the absentee ballot envelopes already had been verified by local clerks. 

"We are not clear what type of audit the Senator is suggesting," Reames wrote. 

Johnson argued Wednesday that the integrity of the November election would be best served by an audit of the August primary. 

"She’s opening a Pandora’s box for whatever side loses to go to court," the former secretary of state said of the November election.

"Ultimately, the people of Michigan are going to be disenfranchised. We’re going to end up in court and there’s just no reason for it."

Benson's office on Wednesday maintained it was her mailing and other education efforts that ensured record turnout in August and what is expected to be another high turnout in November.

"If state Sen. Johnson was truly concerned about disenfranchising voters, instead of squabbling over the court-approved application mailing to voters, she would be actively working to prevent the disenfranchisement of the thousands of Michigan citizens who will suffer that fate in November because, unlike in other states, our Legislature does not allow ballots postmarked by Election Day but arriving after to be counted," said Jake Rollow, a spokesman for Benson.

The first-term secretary of state plans to mail postcards over the next week to 4.4 million registered active voters who have not yet requested an absentee ballot to remind them they have the opportunity to do so. Benson will also mail letters to 700,000 people who have a state driver's license or state ID but haven't registered to vote in Michigan and encourage them to register, the secretary said Wednesday.

Roughly 130,000 of those people will be automatically registered to vote unless they opt out within 30 days of receiving a postcard, Benson said in a statement. The individuals visited the Secretary of State's office for a driver's license or state ID transaction between December 2018 and September 2019, between the passage of automatic voter registration under Proposal 3 and its actual implementation. 

In her letter to Johnson and the Senate Elections Committee, Benson urged lawmakers to allow clerks to begin processing ballots early ahead of Nov. 3. She noted the decrease in election workers and increase in absentee ballots could mean worker fatigue and real delays in delivering election results. 

Benson also asked the committee to consider legislation that would require clerks to call the voter if there were problems with an absentee ballot signature and accept ballots received after Election Day. 

In the Aug. 4 primary, 2,225 absentee ballots were rejected because of missing or mismatched signatures and 6,405 ballots were rejected because they arrived after Election Day. The Aug. 4 primary included a record 2.5 million votes, 1.6 million of which were cast via absentee ballot.

Additionally, about 1,111 were rejected because the voter moved between when they filled out the ballot and Election Day; and 846 were not accepted because the voter died between filling out the ballot and Election Day, according to data from Benson's office. 

"My office looks forward to supporting the committee with any data needed to advance the legislation outlined above," Benson wrote.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Prelude To Detroit: Hillary Clinton Speaks Upon Detroit 2020 Primary Election

This happens every election cycle.

Someone files a complaint about the election.

The complaint is ignored.

The election is certified.

#maytheheavensfall

'This can't go on': Detroit primary ballots went unchecked, GOP poll challengers say

Election workers in Detroit's primary improperly altered some votes and counted thousands of absentee ballots without checks against voter lists, say GOP poll challengers who contend Michigan's largest city isn't ready for November's election.

Detroit, where problems counting ballots have been in the spotlight for at least 15 years, is quickly becoming a key front in the political fight over election integrity. Republicans are signing affidavits about problems they saw in the Aug. 4 primary, while Democratic state officials are taking steps they hope will improve ballot handling in the general election.

About 25 Michigan Republicans monitored the counting of absentee ballots in the basement of the TCF Center in Detroit for the Aug. 4 primary. They reported a variety of missteps that — if accurate — would violate policies in state manuals, ranging from cellphones being used by workers to votes being counted without lists of voters on hand to check the ballots against, according to interviews with eight poll challengers and signed affidavits from five.

A handful of the GOP poll challengers contended that they saw election workers make digital changes to disregard lone Republican votes on ballots featuring mostly Democratic votes in a bid to make the ballots legally countable in the partisan primary, where voters are not allowed to cross over.

Their accounts come after Wayne County election officials revealed that 72% of Detroit's 503 absentee voting precincts reported ballot totals that didn't match the totals of voters tracked in poll books, the official lists of voters participating in the election. The out-of-balance totals, which could have resulted from not checking ballots against the voter lists, would mean that the precincts couldn't be recounted in a close race under state law.

GOP poll challenger Cliff Frost, 73, of Warren said he was "incredulous" to see ballots sent to tabulators without first being checked against poll books as election workers are supposed to do in accordance with state manuals.

Frost said election workers told him: "We’re saving the envelopes, and we’re going to check them later." But he questioned what would happen if the workers found a problem after the votes had already been counted.




With a surge of absentee voting expected this fall, the Nov. 3 election is going to be "a mess" in Detroit, predicted Matt Harris, 41, of Commerce Township, another Republican poll watcher.

"They have September and October, two months," Harris said of the time remaining before the election. "How can they turn it around that fast?”

Election officials in Michigan have emphasized the problems in Detroit's primary election weren't examples of fraud and don't call into question the integrity of the results.

Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey, whose office didn't respond to multiple requests for comment, has tied the problems to increases in absentee voting, veteran election workers not showing up during the COVID-19 pandemic and other workers being on the job for more than 20 hours.

There are security precautions for absentee ballots, such as checking signatures on them, that can be done before Election Day, said Aghogho Edevbie, Michigan director for the voting rights group All Voting Is Local. While Edevbie said he's concerned about the processes used in Detroit's primary, he said he doesn't think something nefarious went on.

"The essential integrity of the process was not breached," he said.

The GOP allegations come as the eyes of the nation could be on Detroit this fall amid record absentee voting and criticism from President Donald Trump about mail-in voting. Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes in 2016, his closest margin of victory nationally.

Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, referenced the Republican poll challengers during an interview with TV show "The Circus" last month in which she advised Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic candidate, not to concede the election. She described the GOP challengers as "lawyers" and said a local reporter was told their presence was a "dry run" for November.

Hillary Clinton has some advice for Joe Biden: Don’t concede in a close race.

The 2016 nominee sits down with @jmpalmieri and @sho_thecircus to urge Dems to pay close attention to GOP strategy. pic.twitter.com/REwfLf1QjS

— The Recount (@therecount) August 24, 2020

"Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances because I think this is going to drag out and, eventually, I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side is," Clinton said.

Skipping ballot books
In a basement room beneath the TCF convention center, hundreds of election workers met in the morning hours of the Aug. 4 primary to begin counting Detroit's absentee ballots.

Tables were set up in squares for each of the more than 130 county boards that would handle the city's 503 absentee voting precincts. Robert Brines, 69, of White Lake, one of the GOP poll challengers, described it as a "monster operation."

The election workers were on the job until about 5 a.m. Aug. 5, the day after the primary. Of the eight Republicans who monitored the work and were interviewed by The Detroit News, none stayed at TCF Center longer than Bob Cushman, a 70-year-old General Motors retiree from South Lyon.

An affidavit signed by Bob Cushman describes what he saw while serving as a poll challenger at Detroit's primary election at the TCF Center on Aug. 4, 2020.

Cushman arrived at the TCF Center at 6:50 a.m. Aug. 4 and didn't leave until 5:10 a.m. Aug. 5, according to an affidavit he signed later. While at the facility, he took five pages of notes, which documented election workers not checking absentee ballots against poll books, a practice that is meant to help keep ballot and voter totals in balance.



At about 2 a.m. on Aug 5, a "soft male voice" came over the microphone system in the center and "instructed everyone to stop what they are doing, open every envelope, separate the ballots and place them in the trays to go to the tabulators," according to Cushman's affidavit. Another announcement repeated the instruction a few moments later, he said.

"About 20 minutes after the announcements, I walked around the TCF Center and noted that there were no more comparisons being made to the poll books at any of the tables that I observed," Cushman said in his affidavit. "I continued to make rounds of the floor with the same observations."

The retiree estimates thousands of absentee ballots were sent to tabulators without being checked against voter lists after the 2 a.m. announcement in an effort to get results more quickly.

"This was just a primary," he said. "There’s going to be a lot more votes, many, many more votes in the general election."

Most other GOP poll challengers said they saw absentee ballots being sent to tabulators without poll book checks earlier on Aug. 4 when counting boards didn't yet have their poll books on site.

Some of the counting boards, which can handle counts for multiple precincts, didn't have poll books until 3 p.m., according to the GOP poll challengers.

"The supervisors were called and seemed shocked, but the workers already admitted that they were told to process the ballots, even without a poll book," said an affidavit from GOP poll challenger Janice Brines of Oxford.

The first steps for counting absentee ballots should involve checking the voter's name in the poll book or qualified absentee voter list, according to Michigan's official manual for absentee voter counting boards. It's an accounting measure that is supposed to help election workers track who's voted and ensure that the number of ballots counted in a specific precinct matches the number of voters.

"You need your poll book. That’s how you begin," said Chris Thomas, who served as Michigan's election director for more than 30 years and is advising Detroit elections operations this fall. "That tells you how many ballots are supposed to be there."

But Detroit was short dozens of election workers for the primary, according to a variety of sources, including Evelyn Archer of Oxford, another Republican poll challenger. Some workers didn't show up. Others left early.

"This can’t go on,” Archer said of the primary problems. “This is not representing the true vote.”

Chris Thomas
'Far cry' from disaster?
On Wednesday, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the state's top election official, and Detroit Clerk Winfrey said they would partner to administer the election in Detroit this fall.

The effort will include recruiting and training at least 6,000 election workers and revising protocols for ballot counting and sorting to "reduce the potential for error," according to a press release.

New technology played a role in the problems in Detroit's primary, said Thomas, now a special adviser on Detroit's upcoming election. But under his analysis of precinct results, in which some precincts were allocated more votes than expected and others were allocated fewer, the citywide totals left only about 21 votes unaccounted for, he said earlier this week in an interview. More than 121,200 ballots were cast.

"That’s a far cry from major disaster," Thomas said.

Asked how concerned voters should be about Detroit's situation this fall, he answered clerks across Michigan are making adjustments to deal with record absentee ballots.

Detroit's previous high for absentee votes in an election was about 57,000, Thomas said. In the Aug. 4 primary, the city had about 80,000 absentee ballots cast, he said. It reflects about a 40% jump.

More will be cast in the upcoming general election during a pandemic and after voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing no-reason absentee voting in 2018.

“Every clerk is dealing with a pandemic situation," Thomas said. "There’s concern across the board in terms of them having the people and resources they need to get the job done. Detroit is no different."

Current Michigan elections director Jonathan Brater told the Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday that efforts in Detroit will focus on improving record-keeping and the accuracy of poll books.

"Because of the issues with recording ballots in the poll books along with the fact that ballots were in some cases put in the wrong containers, that made it very difficult for the city and the county to balance things out in the time they had available," Brater said.

Recount impact looms
More than a quarter of Detroit's absentee voting precincts, or 131 of 503 precincts, were off by plus or minus one ballot without an explanation for Aug. 4 primary when comparing poll books to ballot totals, according to information presented to the Wayne County Board of Canvassers.

Another 85 absentee precincts were off by two ballots without an explanation, 48 were off by three ballots, 26 off by four ballots and 73 off by five ballots. In Michigan, precincts with tallies that are off without explanations can't be recounted.

When totals are out of balance and votes can't be recounted, people will question what actually happened, said state Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, a former secretary of state.

"Something has to be done. It’s not just one city. This happens in a number of places," Johnson said.

Ruth Johnson
But the problems aren't new in Detroit. In 2016, election officials there couldn’t reconcile vote totals for 59% of precincts — combined Election Day and absentee precincts. For the Aug. 4 primary 46% of the total precincts couldn't be reconciled.

The poll book checks weren't the only problems, according to Republican challengers.

Multiple poll observers said they saw Detroit election workers digitally clear improper cross-over votes in the Democratic primary that should have made partisan portions of the ballots invalid. "Three or four times" Robert Brines said he saw election workers remove Democratic primary voters' choice of Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James.

"Some of the operators and observers were correcting an overvote when the ballot should be voided by the system software," an affidavit signed by Robert Brines said.

An affidavit describes what William Lethemon says he saw while working as a poll challenger for Detroit's primary election on Aug. 4, 2020.
Watching the counters
Michigan Republicans plan to closely monitor Detroit's vote-counting in November as President Donald Trump seeks reelection in a state he won by 10,704 votes in 2016.

Trump has argued, without evidence, that the efforts to expand absentee voting during the COVID-19 pandemic "will be the most rigged election in our nation's history." In July, he refused to commit to accepting the results of the election in advance of Nov. 3 — similar to what he did in 2016.

Detroit is Michigan's largest city in the state's largest county, a traditional Democratic stronghold that this fall will likely produce the most Democratic votes among all Michigan counties. In 2016, Detroit supplied 10% of Clinton's statewide vote total, while Wayne County provided about 23%.

Many of the 25 Republican volunteer primary poll challengers at the TCF Center said they plan to be back Nov. 3.

"The integrity of the vote is at stake in my opinion," said Frost, the 73-year-old from Warren.

Like other Republicans, Frost said he wants to see more poll challengers in Detroit — GOP and Democrats. The Democrats had two lawyers at the TCF Center for the primary, according to the Republicans.

"I’m here to watch you," Cushman said one of the Democratic lawyers told him.

Rosanne Ponkowski, 63, of West Bloomfield said she hopes more Democratic poll challengers are active in November, adding election integrity is the No. 1 priority.

"It’s in their interest to make sure the ballots are handled correctly. Period," Ponkowski said.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

The Tale Of Jocelyn Benson: DHS Co-conspiracy Testimony On Voting Rights

The last time I checked, the 2018 Special Election has yet to be certified.

Then, there is that situation with the 2016 General Election certification.

So......

Riddle me this:

If 72% of the election cycle vote count cannot be replicated in a recount, something Jill Stein experienced in Michigan, then, what was the vote tally?

See, the tally and the vote are two, separate and exclusive datasets.

Then, we are dealing with Janice Winfrey.

So, how can one certify the 2020 Primary Election, when no one knows how many people voted?

But, then again, Jocelyn Benson likes to make up stuff all the time.

For some strange reason, I could not find the video.

Perhaps, it was sealed.

About to testify at a virtual hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security titled “Protecting America's Democracy: Ensuring Every Vote Counts." Tune in to the livestream now at https://t.co/CZjoFME4Rz pic.twitter.com/AlPGVYN9jJ

— Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) August 28, 2020

First, this happened...

Michigan board requires Benson to oversee Detroit's fall election

Lansing — The Michigan Board of State Canvassers is requiring Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to exercise her oversight powers this November in Detroit after widespread problems counting ballots in the city's primary and ahead of a pivotal presidential election.

But Benson, a Democrat from Detroit, said in a Monday interview that her efforts wouldn't focus on just the state's largest city. The Secretary of State's office is going to do a "deep dive" in the coming days to identify additional ways to support multiple cities across Michigan as they prepare for a surge of absentee voting this fall, she said.

"I am confident that we’re going to have record turnout this fall and the results of our elections are going to be accurate,” Benson said.

Maurice Brown, 54, of Detroit, votes in precinct \232 at Greater Emmanuel Institutional church this morning during primary voting in Detroit, Tuesday, August 4, 2020.

About 72% of the absentee voting precincts in Detroit's primary election had ballot totals that didn't match the number of ballots reported in poll books. This situation would likely mean  — under state law — those precincts couldn't be recounted in a close race, which is driving concerns among officials for the general election when the eyes of the nation could be on Michigan.

President Donald Trump won the state by 10,704 votes in 2016, his smallest margin of victory nationwide. Former First Lady Michelle Obama said at last week's Democratic convention that it averaged to two votes per precinct in Michigan.

"I don’t really care what the issue is," said Julie Matuzak, a Democratic member of the Board of State Canvassers. "I care that this not happen in November.”

On Monday morning, the board of two Democrats and two Republicans unanimously certified statewide election results for the Aug. 4 primary but included language in the certification that seeks to ensure that Benson gets further involved in supervising what happens with the general election in the state's largest city.

The board approved a requirement that Benson exercise "supervisory control" over the November election in Detroit. State law already provides the secretary of state supervisory control over local election officials, and it's unclear what specific changes in the administration of the election will occur.

"I don't think we're in the position to add the detail right now," said Norm Shinkle, a Republican member of the Board of State Canvassers.

Matuzak, who previously called the situation in the primary "appalling," said she wanted regular reports on what's happening in Detroit ahead of the general election. And Shinkle said he wanted to see a list of requirements from the Secretary of State's Office for the state, Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey and election workers in the city to meet "if Detroit's going to run their own election."

"Otherwise, the secretary of state walks in and runs it," Shinkle said.

Winfrey has connected problems in the primary to election workers who were on the job for more than 20 hours and to a record surge of absentee ballots that they couldn't begin counting until Election Day.

In the Monday interview, Benson reiterated her calls for the Republican-controlled state Legislature to allow election workers to begin processing absentee ballots — getting them ready to be counted — before Election Day to help deal with an onslaught of mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While it's not the entire issue in Detroit, it's a "significant piece of the challenge that occurred," she said.

"This is in many ways a reflection of the potential for human error that overworked and stressed election workers can succumb to when you have the time crunch we've been warning about for nearly a year and a half," Benson said.

Some Republican lawmakers have opposed the proposed change because of concerns that it could lead to ballots being counted before voting is over, potentially giving one side an advantage.

Jonathan Brater, the state's elections director, said it isn't logistically possible for the state to run the election in Detroit but added that there are things that need to be done "much better" in the city.

For the primary, poll books weren't updated as absentee ballots came in, some absentee ballots were allocated to the wrong precincts and ballots were placed in incorrect containers, Brater said.

"We are going to be taking a more active role, both in the recruitment and the training of election inspectors," he added.

About 72% of the 503 absentee voting precincts in Detroit's primary elections had absentee ballot totals that didn't match the number of ballots reported in poll books.

Overall — for absentee voting and Election Day precincts — 46% of Detroit's precincts had ballot totals that were out of balance for the Aug. 4 primary without provided explanations from election workers, meaning they likely couldn't be recounted under state law. The problems spurred frustration and questions from election officials at both the county and state level.

Asked if it would be a failure if Detroit repeated the 46% mismatch rate in November, Benson said her goal is to ensure there is "complete security of the process."

"I am focused on having successful elections in November," she added. "And to me, success would be defined by an accurate count of all of the ballots that are cast."

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers approved a resolution last week, asking the Secretary of State's Office to investigate the "training and processes" used in Detroit's primary election. The resolution asked the office to provide a monitor to "supervise the training and administration" of absentee voter counting boards in Detroit for the general election.

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers approved this resolution asking the Michigan Secretary of State's office to investigate "the training and processes" used by Detroit for the 2020 primary election.
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a record 1.6 million people in Michigan voted by mail for the Aug. 4 primary, which itself set a new record for overall turnout of 2.5 million voters.

Winfrey noted the vast majority of the absentee voting precincts in the city with totals that didn't balance were less than three ballots off, plus or minus.

Detroit had problems with precinct count mismatches in the November 2016 election. Election officials couldn’t reconcile vote totals for 59% of precincts in the city during a countywide canvass of vote results with most of the issues involving too many votes.

Monday morning's meeting of the Board of State Canvassers was a continuation of a meeting that happened on Friday, when technological problems interrupted and forced officials to schedule a new meeting.

During the Friday meeting, all four members of the board voiced frustration with the results of Detroit's primary. Republican state board member Aaron Van Langevelde said the situation was "very troubling" and "unacceptable."

"A repeat performance is going to seriously undermine the public's confidence in the general election," he said.

Then, this happened....

#maytheheavensfall

Secretary of State Benson testifies to protect democracy ahead of election

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson testified before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security on Aug. 28.

Her testimony focused on how to protect America’s democracy and ensure that every vote counts this November, according to Benson.

During the testimony, Benson discussed the statewide primary on Aug. 4 that shattered the previous record for total absentee ballots cast.

“Between a global pandemic and what seems near constant and escalating rhetoric and misinformation, 2020 has brought historic pressures on our elections systems,” said Secretary Benson. “In Michigan our statewide primary has served as a blueprint for running safe, secure, accessible elections during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also highlighting critical needs that, if addressed, can put every state on a path towards successful November elections.”

Benson also spoke for the need for partnership and additional support from state and federal officials to replicate what she says was a successful August election in November.

She also called on the federal government to fully fund the postal service and provide another round of funding to states to shore up election preparations.

“Democracy is a team sport, and if we work together we can succeed in holding elections this fall that are secure, on schedule, and an accurate reflection of the will of the people.” said Secretary Benson. “It’s possible, it’s doable, and our voters should demand no less from their government.”

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Detroit Sues Top Slumlords, Except The Detroit Land Bank Authority

Hmmmm.......

If City of Detroit Corporate Counsel, Larry Garcia is suing the top three Detroit landlords for blight and health hazards; where the Detroit Land Bank Authority is the largest Detroit property owner; then, how come the Detroit Land Bank Authority is not named in this action?

Oh, wait, I know!

If Larry names the Detroit Land Bank Authority, as a party to the action, then, that would mean that the Detroit Land Bank Authority is not a part of the City of Detroit, meaning it is a private operation, and, as such, would have to provide its corporate parent disclosures and instruments of authority, of which was dissolved by Bill Schutte, some time back, in the State Court of Claims, when he has his legal lackey enter into the record that I was a public nuisance.

Uh, oh.

I, also, seem to recall that Carmack case, that is coming up relatively soon for trial, where no one wants to talk about the Detroit Land Bank Authority being in that chain of command of the deed to the property Larry is claiming was stolen from the City, when there has yet to be an explanation of how the Detroit Land Bank Authority acquired the property, in the first place, considering that it was never incorporated, despite Janice Winfrey taking it upon herself to declare incorporation, because she is almighty and stuff, because someone from JonesDay told her so.

But, then again, it could have been someone from Perkins Coie Sucks, or both.

Hey, what do I know?

I know if Larry is not going to go after the largest blight owner in the City of Detroit, that made itself a creditor in the Detroit Bankruptcy, by settling fake ass debts with properties that were fraudulently foreclosed upon, through fake taxes, where the Detroit Land Bank Authority has a history of levying fake ass taxes with their fake ass, made up powers of authority, because it never incorporated, and pilfered all the Hardest Hit Funds out the country into their own personal ventures through children's trust funds, to run back into the U.S. to fund political campaigns, because, if he did, he is going to have to do battle with Butch Hollowell and the lot.

If I had the energy, I would file to intervene, just because Larry is not going after the Detroit Land Bank Authority, but I will not, simply for the fact that I know how this is going to end.

#maytheheavensfall

Detroit sues landlords for blight and health hazards

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The city of Detroit is suing three notorious landlords for neglect, blight and health hazards.

Detroit says the property owners might have 1,000 properties combined all across the city.

City of Detroit goes after slum lords with lawsuits
The city of Detroit is suing three notorious landlords for neglect, blight and health hazards

FOX 2 went to look at three properties on the list filed in Wayne County Circuit Court against Steve and Stephen Hagerman a father and son team, Salameh Jaser and Michael Kelly.

They have earned a title from the city we're sure they don't want - some of the city's most notorious speculators and slumlords.

FOX 2 tried to track them down, stopping at Michael Kelly's office Friday. So far we haven't been able to reach them for comment.

The city says it took legal action because according to them, these folks buy up a bunch of properties and rent them out - even though they were never brought up to code.

They are dilapidated homes that often have serious and terrible health and safety risks like peeling lead paint. The city says the folks above have piles of tickets for not following the rules, and this is a new approach.

"This is a new tactic to attack a business model that is particularly pernicious," said Lawrence Garcia, Detroit city attorney.

Pernicious because they invest and neglect - but in some cases the properties are vacant.

"The notion of a public nuisance, the notion that these properties present an unreasonable danger to the public grossly - I think that is an idea whose time has come."

In the lawsuits the city asks the court to declare the business model a public nuisance and make owners keep their properties up, stopping them from buying more properties until they get their act together.


Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Michigan Audit On Bureau Of Elections - Will State Lobbying Registration Be Held Accountable The Same As FARA?

The Audit did not address the validity of elections, but the integrity of the Qualified Voter Files (QVF), effectiveness of access to controls of the QVF Refresh System, training of election officials, and compliance to Campaign Finance Act, Lobbyist, Lobbying Agents and Lobbying Activities Act (LLALAA) and Casino Interest Registration Act (CIRA).

It seems the Public Interest lawsuit against Janice Winfrey may be just another psyoptic because the Audit has reported that voters with no birth date were flagged with the date of 5-5-1850, with the oldest age of 122 years.

These electors were not deceased, but did not have a date of birth due to a lack of Driver License Files cross references.

Many township and city clerks were not certified.

The part which intrigued me the most was the lack of oversight of the lobbyist system because I want to know if these the same state standards of accountability in state registration are going to be applied in the same fashion as FARA, like the case with Mike Flynn and Bijan Kian.

The report did not address state meshed databases with th e Secretary of State and local property tax records, which are sold to third parties like Lexis Nexis, where the data are highly toxic, being really corrupt using maiden names and wrong property address descriptions.

Michigan OAG Electio Audit 2019 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Audit pings state bureau of elections on voter file, training, campaign finance oversight

Michigan’s Bureau of Elections failed to implement proper controls over the state’s file of 7.5 million qualified voters, a discrepancy that allowed an unauthorized user to access the file and increased the risk of an ineligible elector voting in Michigan, according to a recent report from the Office of Auditor General. 

Elections officials lack proper training in more than 14% of counties, cities and townships, the audit found. And the bureau did not make timely reviews for a majority of campaign statements, lobby reports and campaign finance complaints.

The audit conducted between Oct. 1, 2016, and April 30, 2019, found in the qualified voter file “230 registered electors who had an age that was greater than 122 years, the oldest officially documented person to ever live,” according to the Friday report.

The reviewed information fell largely under the tenure of Republican former Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson took office Jan. 1. 

The audit did not review the implementation of Proposals 2 and 3, which were passed by voters in November 2018. The proposals change how political lines are drawn and allow no-reason absentee voting. 

The bureau, which falls under the Secretary of State’s purview, had 35 employees at the end of fiscal year 2018 and spent $24.6 million that year.

The bureau has begun to address some of the areas in the report and will continue to make improvements through 2020, according to Jake Rollow, a spokesman for Benson.

Among those changes are adding the state's first election security specialists, expanded risk-limit audits and future implementation of recommendations from the election security advisory committee. 

"Our elections are secure — the audit did not find any instances of illegal voting or improper modification of voter registration records — and the Bureau of Elections is continually updating its election security infrastructure," Rollow said in a statement. 

Despite the reportable and material conditions it noted, the audit found the Bureau of Elections largely was "sufficient" when it came to maintaining the integrity of the voter file, training election officials and complying with the Campaign Finance Act, and was "moderately effective" in applying access controls over the qualified voter file system.

The bureau agreed to make changes to address the four conditions noted by the audit, one of which included incomplete election training among election officials in 12 counties, 38 cities and 290 townships. 

The bureau noted that those numbers largely include those who have not completed continuing education, while participation in initial accreditation programs remains “extremely high.”

The bureau agreed to explore more controls over the qualified voter file but noted there wasn’t “a single verified case that an ineligible person voted” among the cases reviewed by the auditor. 

Officials said further investigation was needed on the 230 individuals identified by the audit to confirm their birth dates, noting that the discrepancy might be a result of a system the bureau uses to identify information it needed to investigate further.

“Individuals with no recorded date of birth have been deliberately coded with an implausible birth date (such as 5/5/1850) to more clearly indicate records needing further follow-up,” the report said.

The unauthorized user was a former employee, the bureau said, but there was no modification or destruction of records in the qualified voter file in the period reviewed.

The bureau also agreed to work with local election officials to avoid clerical errors in voter history, but noted that since Michigan is a decentralized system “this is legally a local — note state — responsibility.”

The audit found the Bureau of Elections did not provide timely reviews of 79% of campaign statements, 42% of lobby reports and 67% of campaign finance complaints selected for the audit. 

The bureau said it will continue to work to meet the five-day complaint response window and the 10-day lobby report window, but said it could not “realistically meet” the four-day window to review campaign statements. 

The bureau “indicated that it will work to seek staffing increases that would allow for full review within the timeframes required, as well as a possible legislative change to lengthen the four-day review requirement,” the report said.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

The Tale Of SIGTARP, Hans von Spalovsky, Janice Winfrey & Gerrymandering In The Detroit Russian 2016 Election Interference

https://publicinterestlegal.org/

Gather round, my Dearies for the Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed shall tell the tale of Janice Winfrey, Hans von Spakowsky, & stealin' the children, land & votes.

I smell Mittens Romney and his Carlyle Cabal.

This is not about dead people voting, this is a legal psyoptic to cover up using Detroit Land Bank Authority properties in some jacked up voter packing scam through absentee ballots.

Have you ever wondered to the identities of foster care upon termination of parental right?

What about all those absentee voters, who are under the legal custodialship and guardianship, whose voting rights are transferred by state grant to a private, foreign corporation?

Praise the lord.

What about adoptee former voting rights?

Is this chattel even considered?

Nope.

You know why?

SIGTARP.

Hans von Spalovsky

Yup, this lawsuit is the fault of SIGTARP because no one will say anything about the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

Naughty, SIGTARP!

SIGTARP should go ask Janice Winfrey to tell her tale.

I bet it will be just riveting.

SIGTARP must definitely ask Hans von Spakowsky to tell his tale.

I bet Hans has lovely tales of to tell about his heritage, according to Wikipedia:

Hans Anatol von Spakovsky (born March 11, 1959) is an American attorney and a former member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). He is the manager of the Heritage Foundation's Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow in Heritage's Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.[1] He is an advocate for more restrictive voting laws.[2][3] He has been described as playing an influential role in making alarmism about voter fraud mainstream in the Republican Party, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.[4][5]
He was nominated to the FEC by President George W. Bush on December 15, 2005, and was appointed by recess appointment on January 4, 2006.[6] However, von Spakovsky's nomination was opposed by Senate Democrats, who argued that his oversight of voter laws was unacceptably partisan and that he had consistently acted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters.[7][8] Opposition to the nomination was bolstered by objections from career Justice Department staff, who accused von Spakovsky of politicizing his nominally non-partisan office to an unprecedented degree.[9] While von Spakovsky and the Bush Administration denied the accusations of partisanship, the nomination was withdrawn on May 15, 2008.[10] Von Spakovsky subsequently joined the staff of the Heritage Foundation, a politically conservative think tank. On June 29, 2017, President Donald J. Trump named him to be a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.[11]

Von Spakovsky was born in Huntsville, Alabama, where his parents had eventually settled after immigrating to the United States in 1951. His German mother met his Russian father Anatoly von Spakovsky, who had settled in Yugoslavia after WWI and then fled to Germany after WWII, in a German refugee camp for displaced persons.[5] Von Spakovsky received a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 and a J.D. from the Vanderbilt University Law School in 1984. Von Spakovsky is a member of the Georgia and Tennessee bars. Before entering politics, he worked as a government affairs consultant, in a corporate legal department, and in private practice.
Von Spakovsky served as Republican Party chairman in Fulton County, Georgia, and as a Republican appointee to the Fulton County Registration and Election Board, where he championed strict voter-identification laws.[12][13] Von Spakovsky became a member of Voting Integrity Project, which investigated alleged voter fraud across the United States,[14] as well as a member of the politically conservative Federalist Society. He worked as a lawyer for George W. Bush's team during the 2000 Florida Presidential election recount.[12] After Bush's election victory, von Spakovsky was appointed to the Civil Rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice.[14] 

I like Hans better than John Christian Adams, even though they are both co-conspirators.

FUN FACT! Michael Brady, former legal counsel for the fake ass Detroit Land Bank Authority is now with the Michigan Secretary of State.

Michigan has some serious errors going on in the administration of their meshed databases with local and county governments because the data are corrupt, where they run double books.

There may not be as many registered voters in this area, where I am including Hamtramck and Highland Park, which also makes Han's case suck because he probably failed to identify those geopolitical areas, intentionally, of course.

There may be even less of population due to the issues with the double books.

It always starts in child welfare because no one cares, not even Hans or Janice.

Hans von Spakovsky Lies about Voter Fraud. Now He’s Testifying Before Congress

For all the reasons, cited, above, I am calling this another one of those Crafty Creations by the "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) because it is a distractionary, dilatory action, to divert everyone's attention from the gerrymander for the simple fact that the reporting on the case, since I have yet to see the original complaint, fails to mention the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

So, why is it #perkinscoiesucks is pulling out all the big guns to distract from gerrymandering as Russian interference in the 2016 election?

I believe SIGTARP is really going to have to spend quality time with Hans, but I am pretty sure this is was, notice I reference to the outcome of the case, to be their Hail Mary Pass, GO BLUE!, to save the day from the unsealing of the Detroit Grand Juries.

And that ends another tale of stealin' the children, land and votes.

#perkinscoiesucks

#maytheheavensfall

Suit alleges Detroit has thousands of dead residents on voting rolls

An advocacy group is suing Detroit election officials, claiming they violated the National Voter Registration Act by failing to properly maintain city voting rolls, including listing long-dead residents and keeping multiple registrations for the same people.

The "failure" to comply with federal voter registration laws "undermined the confidence of Detroit’s properly registered voters in the integrity of the voter registration rolls and, accordingly, has undermined the integrity of elections held both within the city of Detroit and across the state of Michigan," the complaint contends.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court, targeting Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey and elections director George Azzouz.

The nonpartisan, Indiana-based nonprofit filed the lawsuit after spending more than two years seeking to resolve Detroit's voting record issues. The foundation said it attempted “to cure problems” with the voter roll maintenance practices when it first requested records on Oct. 3, 2017.

Ultimately, it purchased the state’s entire voter roll on April 1 and analyzed Detroit's voter registration list. Multiple efforts have since been made to have Detroit's discrepancies corrected, but the alleged errors were "brushed aside," said Logan Churchwell, communications and research director for the group.

"Someone dropped the ball, and they keep dropping it," Churchwell said. "All you need is a little bit of chaos to spread distrust."


Duggan administration spokesman John Roach in an email Wednesday referred questions to Winfrey. The city's Law Department, he added, has not seen the lawsuit, nor has it been asked by the clerk to represent her office on the complaint.

Reached Wednesday, Winfrey did not immediately comment on the filing. Azzouz did not return a message left by The News.

The city had 511,786 registered voters as of the 2016 general election, according to Detroit election data, while the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey that year estimated Detroit only had 479,267 voting-age residents, the lawsuit said.

This year, analyzing the city’s official voter registration list from the state roll, Public Interest members “identified records listing years of birth indicating registrants of 105 years of age and older, with some records listing dates of birth in the nineteenth century. According to the foundation’s research, the oldest, active registrant in the city of Detroit was purportedly born in 1823, 14 years before Michigan was admitted to the Union as the 26th state,” according to the suit.

Through more research and further checking of Social Security and other records, the foundation also found “a significant number of deceased registrants whose registrations should have been canceled, but remain registered to vote in Detroit,” the suit reads.

For example, in a sample of 2,503 voter registrants flagged as likely dead, “(65) percent, or 1,629 registrants, have been deceased for more than 10 years. Of those, 898 registrants have been deceased for more than 15 years, 324 registrants have been deceased for more than 20 years, and 13 have been deceased for more than 25 years,” according to the court document.

When poring over city voters rolls to find identical or closely matching names, addresses and birth dates, “the foundation’s comparison yielded a list of 2,384 entries that are likely duplicates or triplicates," the filing said. “... The defendants have many tools available to conduct list maintenance and, yet, they are failing to reasonably maintain the city of Detroit’s voter rolls."

The Public Interest Legal Foundation launched in 2014 and acts as a law firm that focuses on election administration issues. It's headed by J. Christian Adams, who formerly worked for the U.S. Justice Department's legal section and served on President Donald Trump's advisory commission on election integrity.

Churchwell said there's a private right of action built into the Voting Rights Act that permits the foundation, or others to bring such court action.

The group has filed lawsuits in Florida, Texas and Mississippi over similar alleged voting roll errors as it found in Detroit. Most have been settled or remain on appeal, he said.

"This type of lawsuit is very rare," he said. "There's just not a whole lot of case law on it."

Churchwell told The News on Wednesday that the group identified and reported similar voting roll errors to clerk's offices in Flint and Grand Rapids.

Flint City Clerk Inez Brown said the group requested information this year, but her office hasn't had the resources to complete it, nor the time, due to its focus on elections.

The city just completed an election in November and has another that's upcoming Jan. 7 as well as the March presidential primary.

The foundation, she said, is seeking a vast amount of information and for large urban cities, such as Flint and Detroit, "it's not as easy as people may think."

"We all do the best we can do to ensure everything is kept properly, in an orderly way and in accordance with state law," she said. "We're not going to do anything that's going to put the voters' rights in jeopardy."

The foundation, in its Tuesday filing, said it alerted Detroit elections staff of the concerns, corresponded with the office via email and drove out to meet with officials there.

The foundation sent a letter to Winfrey in the spring, notifying her the city allegedly was in violation of Voting Rights Act, warning of a potential lawsuit to ensure compliance.

The issues with the city's rolls, Churchwell said, have "lived on for years," and there "doesn't seem to be any effort to address them."

The suit is asking Detroit to implement effective registration list maintenance programs and ensure that ineligible voters are not on the city rolls.

But the foundation has faced some criticism over a flawed analysis several years ago involving non-citizens listed on voting rolls in Virginia that landed them in litigation.

Churchwell said public records provided by the state elections office in Virginia for the analysis was "mislabled" and "communicated wrong." A lawsuit filed by certain individuals purported to be non-citizens was settled, and the foundation apologized, he said.

Bill Ballenger, a long-time political pundit, said "people want clean voter rolls.”

“They don’t want dead wood, they don’t want people with suspicious addresses and suspicious backgrounds on the voter rolls,” he said. “The Republicans are generally more focused on enforcing that kind of regimen than Democrats are, but both sides really don’t want fraudulent people on the voter rolls who might be able to vote.”

The Detroit Clerk’s Office has faced voting-related controversies in recent years.

After the 2016 presidential election, a Wayne County canvass revealed "significant discrepancies" in the number of voters and ballots in 392 Detroit precincts.

The Michigan Bureau of Election "found no evidence of pervasive voter fraud," according to a 24-page audit, but noted that more than half of 136 Detroit precincts had nearly 600 questionable votes, which was reduced to 216 after extensive review.

Poll worker errors in the 2017 general election prevented 20% of reviewed precincts from being recounted.

Winfrey has said the city bought new voting machines and beefed up poll worker training to address the issues.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

No Water, No Vote - The Legal Geniuses Of The Great Detroit Water Shutoff Debacle Prepares For Their 2020 Election Victory

Well, it looks like our favorite "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) over there at the City of Detroit are gearing up for the 2020 election because they are getting ready to launch their next, latest and greatest election victory operation, since all the legal cases against them have gone bye bye.

Yes, that is correct, it seems the rogue ass crew is at it again, but I believe this matter may be resolved by the time that I post this, considering that the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has just raided the IT Department that handles all this stuff I have filed multiple complaints about.

This is not a legal notice which
makes it a fraud scheme lie.

I have brought this complaint to the attention of SIGTARP, FBI and any other relevant law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction and have no fucking qualms of reanimating all my legal actions.

I know how to do that, you know.

If you are reading this, please, be so kind and to share this with your friend, family, and any one else who is offended by the actions of these individuals.

I attempted to send an online form complaint to SIGTARP, but the system would not let me, so I found another way.

When you have no water, you have no vote.

A water shutoff automatically disqualifies your vote because you property is condemned.

Just ask Janice Winfrey.

Cocktails & Popcorn: Detroit & Wayne County Figure Out That Fees Are Not Taxes

On November 15, 2019, I received a door hang notifying me that my water service is scheduled to be interrurpted in approximately 7 days due to nonpayment with a shut off date of November 18, 2019.

According to DWSD system, my water has been shut off where I experienced a previous situation of having a worker come to my home to shut off my water for illegal usage, of which I was never notified. I physically went to the main office where I was told I had to pay a reconnection fee, for services that were never terminated. I was told that I listed as water theft. I filed a police report as this was an internal issue with the system, suspect to either hacking or other egregious activities, as I dismiss the possibility of human error, due to my litigation with the City.

I sent grievance to my City Councilman, Gabe Leland, requesting referral for investigation, to no avail.

In this situation, I take a water shutoff as another act of retaliation for the simple fact that, I am listed as engaging in a criminal act of public service theft, which not only triggers the process to disqualify my votes, but also initiates foreclosure on my property and prosecution.


On June 21, 2019, I received a letter from the Chief Financial Officer Office of the Assessor Operations and Administrative Services regarding unpaid property taxes, even though I have been approved for the poverty exemption property tax program.

On September 10, 2019, I received a letter from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer of the Office of the Treasury, Revenue Collections Unit, identifying me as a "customer" and not a resident.

The letter of collection goes on to state that the Revenue Collections Branch has been notified that my vusiness license will expire on September 30, 2019 and that I have to notify the office in 30 in writing to dispute the debt.

This unidentified "debt" was then converted into a property tax which was placed upon my property, for the tax years that I have previously been approved for the poverty property tax exemption, which is not listed in any public database.

The point person is identified as Michael Jones, Tax Examiner II, but herein lies the issue:

My business, the Detroit Land Bank Authority, LLC, was dissolved in the Michigan Court of Claims by former Attorney General Bill Schuette, November 27, 2017, so , riddle me this: How is it the City of Detroit converted an unidentified debt of my dissolved legal business entity, Detroit Land Bank Authority, LLC, when the end result will be a transfer, through a court of law, to the Detroit Land Bank Authority, which is not, nor has it ever been a legal entity, with no chance in the future to be a legal entity?

I have two disabled children and continue to survive the barrage of these unprecedented acts of fraud.

I am forwarding this to complaint to SIGTARP, DHS, DOJ, FBI, Office of the Mayor, including Corporate Counsel, and Michigan Attorney General.

I am also documenting the resolution of this matter on my blog, because this is not an act of incompetence, this is retaliation in the most nefarious means.

Do not let my water be shutoff.

I pay each and every month, where I have never had my services terminated.

I thank you in advance for immediate attention to this matter.

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=water+shutoff

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

The Illegitimate Elected Ones Of Detroit Are Voting Themselves Pay Raises For Stealin' The Children, Land & Votes

When you know you did a great job stealin' the children, land & votes.

Oh, why the heck not let them vote themselves a pay hike because they are all illegitimate office holders, anyway.

We should give them all gold stars on their foreheads for doing such a great job of stealin' the children, land and votes, too.

It will make them feel all warm and fuzzy for getting those legal actions in Detroit cancelled.

Pay hikes sought for Detroit's elected officials

Detroit — A series of pay raises are being sought for Mayor Mike Duggan, City Clerk Janice Winfrey and Detroit's nine council members.

Detroit's City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on the proposal that calls for an immediate 3% increase in salary for the city's elected officials. Subsequently, Duggan, Winfrey and the council would get an additional 2.5% increase March 1, 2020, and 2.5% more on July 1, 2020, according to a resolution by the city's compensation board.

Mike Duggan

Duggan currently earns $174,930 per year and Council President Brenda Jones is paid $86,967. Other council members and Winfrey make $82,749 annually, according to a chart prepared by the city's Human Resources Department.

If approved, this will mark the third series of increases granted for the city's elected leaders since Detroit's bankruptcy exit in December 2014.

After the incremental adjustments, Duggan's pay will top out at just over $189,000, Jones at $94,000, and the remaining council members and Winfrey near $89,500.

The latest pay recommendations were adopted on Nov. 5 by the Elected Officials Compensation Commission which meets in odd years to evaluate the salaries of Detroit's elected officials.

Commission members who attended the meeting could not be reached for comment.

The council must support the proposal by a two-thirds vote. If it is rejected, the existing salaries will prevail. The council's Internal Operations subcommittee on Wednesday moved the recommendations forward to the full council without discussion.

Brenda Jones

Winfrey, in an Oct. 24 letter to the commission, argued for a $30,000 pay bump that would have made her annual salary $112,000.

In her reasoning, Winfrey stressed the responsibilities of her duties as clerk and noted that her pay remains lower than other Michigan clerks that oversee far smaller budgets and voting operations.

Reached by The News Thursday, Winfrey declined to comment beyond the letter she submitted.

Winfrey's letter cites figures reported in a recent Michigan Municipal League survey that show Southfield's clerk earns $101,500 annually and the clerk in Grand Rapids is paid $106,000 per year.

The clerk's argument mirrored the case she made for an increase in 2017, noting she oversees a budget of nearly $13 million and about 200 full and part-time employees in addition to 8,000 poll workers and 637 voting precincts and absentee counting boards.

Janice Winfrey

She referenced 10% wage reductions imposed in 2010 amid the city's financial struggles and asked the commission to factor in the progress she's made as Detroit's clerk and "the added responsibility associated with operating the largest and most complex City Clerk and Elections operation in the State of Michigan."

Council members and Duggan did not submit letters to the commission requesting raises. Duggan's office had no comment Wednesday on the recommendations.

Just after winning her fourth term in 2017, Winfrey asked the compensation board to grant her a $20,000 raise.

In 2015, Winfrey and Jones called for a pay boost, citing, in part, the voluntary 10% pay reductions in 2010.

The commission recommended raises for the city's elected officials in 2015 and 2017, which were subsequently approved by the council.

Prior to that, the salaries had not been increased by the commission since 2001-02.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Michigan Absentee Voting - How The Demons Of Detroit Cast Stolen Ballots For Election Clerks

"Bring me more absentee ballots."

Jocelyn Benson is having what I like to call a cognitive dissonance moment, where she is lounging in her warm bath of denial, covered in an aromatic effervescence of a bubbly glow, for having won her election through absentee voting fraud in Detroit and has yet to get caught.

Janice Winfrey has her own demons, as well as a rogue ass crew with their own slithering black souls.

Speaking of slithering black souls, where is Fat Ass?

Clerks facing challenges with absentee voting skyrocketing in Michigan elections

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said citizens must also contribute to election security by guarding against the "hacking of their minds" through the spreading of fear or propaganda. Wochit, Wochit

With absentee voting skyrocketing since voters approved a ballot proposal  last year allowing for its expansion, clerks across the state are worrying about counting ballots next year, when a record turnout is expected for the presidential race.

Some clerks and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson are calling on the state to allow election officials to be able to open and prepare absentee ballots for counting — and maybe even begin tabulating — votes before Election Day.

Opponents worry that early processing and counting could lead to more voter fraud because ballots could be less secure until they're ready to be counted. They're also concerned that results could leak out and have a chilling effect on voters who haven't cast ballots yet.

In the August primary and November general election, when city leadership races and police and parks millages were at stake, absentee voting in some communities was as high as 82%. Hot races drew a record number of absentee voters: 

• In Warren,  51.2% of the votes came from absentee voters, who provided the winning margin for Mayor Jim Fouts' reelection last week. 
• In Westland, where seven candidates were vying for four City Council seats, 67% of the voters cast absentee ballots last week. 
• In Rochester Hills, where six people were running for two seats on the City Council, 82% of voters chose the absentee route during the August primary. 

Thirty other states and Washington D.C. have rules and laws in place that allow for election officials to at least begin processing absentee ballots and, in some cases, counting the votes, before Election Day. This eases the load on Election Day and allows for quicker release of results after the polls close.

Under Michigan law, election officials aren't allowed to process or count ballots until Election Day.

Local clerks seeing big changes in voting habits

Local clerks began seeing the impact of Proposal 3, allowing anyone to vote by absentee ballot, in the first election of the year in May.

But the August primary and the November 5 election results confirmed their suspicion that elections in Michigan have changed forever.

“In August, 82% of the ballots we issued were voted by absentee,” said Rochester Hills city clerk Tina Barton. “On Tuesday (Nov. 5), more than 50% were absentee and I’m anticipating in March (for the presidential primary), we’ll be back to the higher number.”

In statewide November elections in 2014, 2016 and 2018, absentee voting rates ranged from 25.4% to 26.5%. While the state doesn't keep a tally in municipal elections, cities across the state reported absentee vote totals from last week's election at 50% or higher.

Coupled with a new provision that allows people to register to vote, and cast ballots, up through Election Day, clerks are worried about how to cope with the more labor-intensive duties on Election Day.

In Warren, where a highly contested race for mayor attracted a higher than normal turnout, 51.2% cast absentee ballots.

“Our permanent absentee voter list went from 12,000 to 21,000 people and that number could double for the presidential election next year,” Warren city clerk Sonja Buffa said.

Warren election workers began counting the absentee ballots at 8 a.m. and didn't finish until 11 p.m.  It's a labor intensive process that requires ballots to be removed from envelopes, unfolded, flattened and fed through a ballot tabulator.

"I think it will eventually even out and I’ll need less people at the polls and more at AV board," Buffa said. "But for now, I like to have six people at each of the precincts and at least 50 people counting absentee ballots."

In Westland, 67% of the 8,638 voters who cast ballots chose the absentee route. And that wasn’t a surprise for Clerk Richard LeBlanc.

“One of the things that I did when I first was elected was an outreach effort because we had 11,000 people over 60 who weren’t permanent absentee voters,” he said. “We went from slightly over 4,000 on our permanent AV list to 11,000. So, we’ve had the benefit of a couple of years of a higher volume.”

And 2020 is only going to be bigger. The last four presidential cycles have recorded turnouts of at least 63% in Michigan.

"While we don't make specific predictions, we’re expecting a surge in turnout next year, because a lot of people are watching and are excited about this coming election," said Myrna Perez, the director of Voting Rights and Elections at the Brennan Center for Justice, a New York-based organization that advocates, in part, for equal and fair access to voting. "We're telling election workers they need to be prepared."

Michiganders wanted easier access to the polls

The surge in absentee voting comes after Michigan voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot proposal in 2018 that expanded access to voting in several ways. The proposal:

• Allowed all voters to vote by absentee ballot without having to provide an excuse. Previously, voters had to use one of six reasons to be eligible for absentee ballots — 60 or older, out of town on Election Day, being a poll worker, being unable to vote without assistance at the polls, in jail awaiting arraignment or trial; unable to vote in person because of religious reasons;
• Allowed voters to register to vote, and cast ballots, up through Election Day. Before Proposal 3, people couldn’t register to vote in the 30 days before an election.
• Restored straight-ticket voting, which allows voters to fill in one box on the ballot to vote for all Republicans or Democrats.

The sentiment behind the “Promote the Vote” ballot proposal was to make it easier for people to cast ballots and to perhaps increase participation in elections.

Turnout this month was up slightly in Wayne and Macomb counties compared with the comparable election four years ago, but down slightly in Oakland County.

Macomb County Clerk Fred Miller can’t say yet whether the increase in absentee voting was a factor for the turnout uptick.

“We had a couple of really high-interest races in some communities,” he said, pointing to the Warren mayor’s race and millages in Washington Township. “I think it will take a couple of election cycles to figure it out.”

Charles Stewart III, who runs the election data and science lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said there’s little evidence that easier access to absentee voting increases turnout in big election years, such as the 2016 or upcoming 2020 presidential elections.

“Where it does increase turnout is for elections of lower interest, like school board elections, bond issues or municipal elections,” he said. “Those are areas where, when you have a permanent absentee voter list, you can double turnout in those elections pretty easily.”

Clerks say proposals for help not adequate

Lawmakers are looking at ways to ease the burden on local clerks. Bills have been introduced that would mandate local clerks create permanent absentee voter lists that would be used to mail out applications for absentee ballots.

The bills also would make it easier to consolidate precincts as more people choose the absentee voting route and allow clerks to use more unconventional locations for polling precincts, since some locations such as schools are no longer allowing elections officials to use their buildings for precincts.

But that’s not nearly enough for many clerks who have to balance the need for maintaining the integrity of the election with reporting results in a timely manner.

Clinton Township Clerk Kim Meltzer told lawmakers last month that 16,000 voters cast absentee ballots in the August election and it took her election workers until 2:30 a.m. to get those ballots counted.

“And now we’re anticipating even more of an increase in 2020,” she said. “Even if it’s just three hours more, that’s taking us to 5 a.m. and it’s mostly older people processing the ballots.

“With sleep deprivation, mistakes are more likely at that point,” she added. “We want to provide quick results, but not at the expense of the integrity of the process.”

Some clerks are calling on the state to allow election officials to be able to at least open and prepare absentee ballots for counting before Election Day.

Barton takes it a step further and said that clerks should be allowed to run absentee ballots through voting tabulators before Election Day, making sure that no vote totals are tallied until the polls close at 8 p.m. on election night.

“We can start counting early, putting ballots through tabulators. Or Virginia has a preparation process, getting the ballots in stacks and ready to go, but not tabulated,” she said. “It’s like chopping all the vegetables the night before for Thanksgiving dinner.”

Other states are doing it. Oregon is one of three states — the others are Washington and Colorado — that does all of its voting by mail and begins running ballots through tabulators before Election Day.

Michigan was the latest state to allow for no-reason absentee voting, joining 30 other states that let voters fill out and turn in their ballots before Election Day. Another 19 states require a specific excuse for absentee voting.

Some clerks and lawmakers are skeptical of early voting, though, and are concerned that results might leak out before all voters cast their ballots.

"I’m not totally comfortable with the idea of counting ahead of time," said Macomb's Miller, noting it's a decision that local clerks will have to make. "I’d be afraid that there would be unintended, maybe chilling consequences."

Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, is the former Secretary of State and said that because 1,520 city and township local clerks run elections in Michigan, instead of the 83 county clerks, there is too much room for error.

"The biggest concern is how do you sequester and keep the integrity of those ballots," she said. "We have had people, clerks that have fiddled with ballots and they were caught,"

But Stewart said there are ways of managing those concerns.

"You can make a distinction between getting ready to scan and actually scanning the ballots. There are ways of opening envelopes and putting them in secure batches and coming back on Election Day," he said. "And the fact is that there are administrative controls for early voting, so the results aren’t leaking out ahead of time."

It's a system that Benson also has endorsed. She told lawmakers earlier this year that she wants clerks to be able to start counting ballots four days before Election Day.

"This will help ensure they are able to provide accurate election results as soon as possible following the close of polls on Election Day itself, while reducing the possibility for counting errors that occur when you're trying to count a significant number of ballots in a short period of time," she told the House Elections and Ethics committee.

The surge in absentee voters remains one of Benson's biggest concerns about the 2020 election and beyond, she told a Senate Elections panel on Oct. 30.

"Citizens are going to be voting by mail in increasing numbers more than ever before and we need to be prepared for it," she said. "If you educate voters and give them the opportunity to vote by mail, they will take advantage of that."

In the meantime, some clerks are using advanced technology to speed the process of counting absentee ballot. Many communities are using high-speed tabulators to more efficiently count ballots and Westland's LeBlanc has an envelope-opening machine that also cuts down the time it takes to get ballots counted.

Right to register and vote on Election Day causing headaches, too

Voters also are taking the advantage of new law to register to vote in the month before an election.

In last week's election, more than 2,000 people registered to vote in the 14 days before the election, including 1,000 who registered and voted on Election Day, according to preliminary figures from the Secretary of State. One-third of those registering on Election Day were 18-21 years old.

"We’re optimistic that next year we’ll see even more people, particularly young people, take advantage of this opportunity and our democracy will be better for it," Benson said.

And that's also creating additional challenges for clerks, especially on Election Day, when most workers are tied up with running the actual election.

"We had three people register on Election Day," LeBlanc said. "I knew a mother and daughter who came in and I said 'happy birthday,' to the daughter. She looked at me and said, 'It's not my birthday,' and I said it had to be her birthday if she was coming in to register on Election Day."

Barton said there were only about four people who registered to vote in Rochester Hills on Election Day.

"But that’s time-consuming, so we have to hire multiple employees for that, too," she said. "Elections are kind of like Christmas — they’re exciting, they're expensive. Some people are naughty, some are nice. And they’re full of surprises."

Additional election resources are scarce

As with many public policy issues, much of the concern revolves on having enough resources to get the job done.

Benson asked lawmakers for an additional $3 million to help with the new voting laws, including purchasing more high-speed tabulators for clerks. But lawmakers made no promises.

"Lawmakers need to better resource election administrators so they can handle these voting surges adequately," said Perez of the Brennan Center. "Americans have the best democracy in the world and we don’t want to pay for it. It's not cheap to run elections well."

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote©