ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced felony election law violations against 4 people accused of double voting as well as charging 3 election workers.
Four people in the St. Clair Shores area voted in the August primary election via absentee ballots, and then showed up on election day to vote in person, the AG said.
She accused three election workers of "violating the law by ignoring systemic warnings and knowingly willfully allowing double voting to occur."
Three of the four voters wrongly completed an affidavit where they falsely claimed they had not previously voted in this election despite already voting absentee.
Frank Prezzato, 68, Stacy Kramer, 56, Douglas Kempkins, Jr., 44, and Geneva O’Day, 62, all of St. Clair Shores, each face one count of voting absentee and in person, and one count of offering to vote more than once.
Assistant Clerks Patricia Guciardo, 73, and Emily McClintock, 42, are facing one count of voting absentee and in person, and one count of offering to vote more than once. Assistant Clerk Molly Brasure, 31, faces falsifying election records, two counts of voting in person and absentee, and one count of offering to vote more than once.
Offering to vote more than once carries the maximum penalty of four years, while voting in person and absentee, and falsifying election records are five-year maximum penalties.
These assistant clerks were municipal employees and not volunteer election workers, the AG's office said.
Those double votes were counted during the August 2024 primary, but did not impact the outcome of any race, Nessel said.
"One person, one vote. It's a simple but highly important American value we've all known since we were children. When people violate this principle, they violate state law and undermine the most basic tenets of our American democracy," Attorney General Nessel said.
Michigan has more than 4,300 voting precincts with more than 1.8 million Michiganders who voted in the August primary.
"Double voting in Michigan is extremely rare," Nessel said. "In that primary, there were 59 reported instances of double voting in Michigan, accounting for less than .005% of the total votes. Nevertheless, the fact that four incidents occurred in a single municipality of this size raises significant concerns. It's shocking, and it's simply unheard of."
There are procedures in place to make sure this doesn't happen.
The Electronic Poll Book tracks voter information, and it indicated the voter already voted by absentee ballot, and that the ballot was received by the local clerk, AG Nessel said.
Election workers were allegedly instructed by Guciardo, McClintock, and Brasure to override the system warnings and issue in-person ballots. This resulted in a double vote.
"It really took a perfect storm to come together to allow these four individuals to double vote, which included voters who were willing to vote twice, the completion of affidavits that were false poll workers who did not turn them away as they should have, and municipal clerks who illegally altered the qualified voting file. The confluence of so many of these things had to happen in order for this to occur. So, yes, we have sufficient procedures in place, which is likely why it's so rare that this happens," Nessel said.
If you have more ballots than voters, clerks are required to report that, AG Nessel said.
And that's what St. Clair Shores City Clerk Abby Barrett did when she discovered this to the Macomb County Clerk, the police department and the State Bureau of Elections.
The AG's office investigated independently of the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office.
Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido declined to file charges.
Nessel called his handling of the case insufficient.
AG Nessel said for most of the seven people involved, their political affiliations aren't known.
However, two of the accused election workers previously registered as members of the Democratic Party during their training, the AG said.
Those accused are charged in the 40th District Court in St. Claire Shores. They have not yet been arraigned.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson shared this statement about the charges:
“Voting more than once is illegal. Anyone who tries to vote multiple times in an election will get caught and they will be charged.
“We will watch closely to see how the facts bear out in this case. But anyone who thinks they can get away with voting fraud in Michigan should know we will not tolerate any attempt to interfere in our elections.
“I am grateful for the bipartisan, professional election administrators all across Michigan who work hard daily to ensure we count every valid vote, and only valid votes. Our team will continue to work alongside them to prepare for November.”