Battleground Countdown: 7 Charged With Voter Fraud in Michigan Weeks Before Election
Fred Lucas /
With just a month before Election Day, one of the most contested battleground states in the country—Michigan—has a major alleged voter fraud case involving three election officials and four voters.
State Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced Friday that her office had secured felony charges against the seven individuals in St. Clair Shores, part of Macomb County and located in suburban Detroit, for allegedly double voting, or facilitating it, during the state’s August primary.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are fiercely competing for Michigan’s 15 electoral votes, separated by no more than 1 or 2 percentage points in most polls, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Nessel said that double voting is rare, but in this case, it was caught.
“It took a confluence of events and decisions to allow these four people to double vote,” Nessel said in a public statement. “Nevertheless, the fact that four incidents occurred in a municipality of this size raised significant concerns and is simply unheard of.”
Democrats frequently insist that voter fraud isn’t real, when opposing voter ID measures and other election reforms.
The attorney general’s office charged Frank Prezzato, 68; Stacy Kramer, 56; Douglas Kempkins Jr., 44; and Geneva O’Day, 62, with one count each of voting both absentee and in-person. If convicted, they could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Two St. Clair Shores assistant clerks Patricia Guciardo, 73, and Emily McClintock, 42, are each charged with one count of falsifying election returns or records, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years if convicted; one count of voting absentee and in person, and one count of offering to vote more than once, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Another assistant clerk, Molly Brasure, 31, faces two counts of falsifying election returns or records and two counts each of voting absentee and in person, and offering to vote more than once.
An arraignment date has not yet been set. All individuals are presumed innocent.
As noted in my book “The Myth of Voter Suppression,” absentee voting is by far the most frequent avenue for election fraud.
Macomb County leans Republican, according to the website BestPlaces that tracks various demographic information about localities.
After the August primary, Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido, a Republican, investigated and declined to bring criminal charges.
However, the Attorney General’s Office continued the probe and found and reviewed voting records, police reports, interviewed elections inspectors for those precincts, and analyzed the Qualified Voter File for time-stamped changes.
On Monday, St. Clair Shores Mayor Kip Walby told CBS Detroit the charges should not have been brought against the individuals, and said they didn’t intend to break any laws.
“There was no intent here. There was no intent for voter fraud, not at all,” Walby said. “If the attorney general really thinks it’s voter fraud, she should come down and interview them, and if she does, she will understand this is not voter fraud. These people did not intend to defraud the system, so she should come and interview these people.”