Michigan’s formatting error does not mean voters are returning ballots from multiple addresses

Some social media users say data from early voting reports in Michigan showed more votes than the actual number of voters, alleging voter fraud was taking place in the battleground state.

October 30 Post on Facebook stated that 279,113 ballots were “cast by only 114,545 voters.”

“If you count the result, that means at least 164,568 illegal votes were cast in MI… and we are still six days away from Election Day,” the post’s caption reads. “This is further evidence to support my claim that early voting is designed to enable voter fraud.”

A screenshot of the image was shared in a Facebook post post X by Matthew DePerno, a former candidate for Michigan Attorney General and the state Supreme Court. DePerno is awaits trial regarding allegations of a crime related to the alleged conspiracy to manipulate voting machines after the 2020 general election.

DePerno said the numbers were discovered during a review of the state’s qualified voter records and showed votes cast as of Oct. 29. He shared a photo showing what he claims were 29 votes recorded with a single voter ID in Wayne County and tagged Elon Musk and the Republican Party with an X.

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The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat fake news and misinformation in its feed. (Read more about our cooperation with Metawhich owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

But the post is misleading. Data presented on social media does not mean that one voter cast multiple votes, Michigan Department of State explained on its websiteattributing it to a formatting error in the qualified voter’s file.

(Screenshot from Facebook)

The claims about excess votes from individual voters in Michigan proliferation widely on social media. DePerno’s post on X had over 5.6 million views and 28,000 shares on X as of October 31. Rasmussen Reports, a conservative polling company, shared the same image on X and garnered 7.6 million views and 16,000 shares.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office responded to the claims in a letter: Facebook post from October 30 which said: “A recent social media post included a report containing formatting errors to falsely claim that individual voters cast multiple ballots in this election.”

IN post X from October 31Benson wrote: “Expect bad actors to take small issues and use them to fuel baseless conspiracy theories to advance their own agendas.”

Both secretaries of state in office connected to the state’s Election Facts Center, which posted a lengthy post addressing the issue.

Fact Center the headline read: “Qualified Voter File Allows Acceptance of Only One Ballot Per Voter in Each Election – Format Error Corrected.”

The lengthy post added that “recent social media outlets produced a report containing formatting errors to falsely claim that individual voters cast multiple ballots in this election. The data error has been identified and corrected.”

The post said the file contains details of every eligible and registered voter and each record has a voter ID with a unique identifier. If a voter moves, a history of address changes is added to the file. However, registration is only active at the last address where the voter registered, the post said.

“QVF does NOT allow the acceptance of multiple ballots for the same voter or the same voter ID,” the post said in bold.

The post said the Michigan Bureau of Elections identified a formatting error in a routine report listing voters who cast early absentee ballots. The error generated a row for each voter’s previous addresses, resulting in multiple addresses associated with a single voter ID appearing in the list.

“Each of these voters only had one vote registered in this election,” the post said, adding that the error had been corrected.

Despite clarifying that no excess votes were counted, some Conservatives took credit on social media for preventing it.

The claim caught the attention of Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee and daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump. She he said with X, “We immediately investigated the matter and CONFIRMED that it was a glitch in the system – these duplicates have not been and WILL NOT BE COUNTED. We are on it and protecting the vote!”

Rogan O’Handley, a conservative who uses the pseudonym DC_Draino on social media, admitted to the RNC: writes on Instagram“That’s how we win. We just stopped the counting of 168,000 fraudulent ballots in Michigan just hours after they were discovered.”

Our ruling

The social media post said that in Michigan, just 114,545 voters cast 279,113 ballots, meaning 164,568 illegal votes were cast. Some voters cast multiple ballots using the same voter ID and different addresses, according to the post.

The Michigan Department of State found that a formatting error that has been fixed in the Qualified Voter File included lines containing multiple addresses for some voter IDs that returned ballots. Previous addresses are recorded on a voter’s file even if the voter moves, but voter registration is only active for the last address on file. The system does not allow multiple votes with the same ID, the state said.

A formatting error in the report showed multiple addresses for some voters who returned ballots, but only one vote for each ID was counted. We assess the claim that 114,545 illegal votes were cast in Michigan as false.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to the fact-checking.