With the 2026 midterm election fast approaching, Michigan’s Office of the Auditor General released a comprehensive review of the state’s voter registration file. The audit, conducted by a nonpartisan office, confirms that the Michigan Department of State is doing a solid job keeping the voter rolls clean while also highlighting a handful of anomalies that need attention.
Overall accuracy of the voter file
The Qualified Voter File (QVF) contains roughly 8.3 million entries. According to the report, 99.99% of those entries have complete and valid personal data—such as address and birthdate—meeting state legal requirements. State and local election officials have been performing routine checks to keep the file up‑to‑date, and between Jan. 1 2022 and March 30 2026, nearly one million registrations were cancelled for permissible reasons, including death or relocation.
Registrations flagged for citizenship issues
The audit identified 403 registrations that were cancelled or rejected because the registrants could not be confirmed as U.S. citizens. This includes individuals who marked the non‑citizen box on their registration form or failed to respond to inquiries about citizenship status. An additional 347 registrations were cancelled as “registered in error,” some of which may also involve illegal immigrants, though the exact number is unclear.
State officials emphasized that these figures represent a tiny fraction of the total voter base. A Department of State spokesperson said the findings demonstrate proactive maintenance of the rolls rather than evidence of a systemic problem.
Dead voters and early‑ballot concerns
Cross‑checking voting records with death records from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services revealed that 2,582 ballots were cast by individuals who had died before Election Day. However, 2,561 of those were early or absentee ballots submitted within 40 days of the election—a period allowed for absentee voting. This suggests most of the votes were cast by living voters who later passed away before the election date.
Michigan law requires election workers to make their best effort to void absentee ballots from deceased voters, but delays in death certification can hinder timely removal from the QVF.
Age‑related data anomalies
The audit also uncovered 653 registrations with birthdates indicating ages over 122 years, and 73 entries showing ages younger than 17½. Officials explained that these anomalies often stem from data entry errors, such as using placeholder years (e.g., 1900) when older records were digitized.
Reporting error corrected
Finally, the auditor found that the Department of State’s monthly reports had over‑reported the number of people automatically registered when obtaining or updating a driver’s license or state ID. The department traced the issue to a scripting error on its website and has since corrected the reports.
Overall, the audit provides a balanced view: Michigan’s voter registration system is largely reliable, with a few isolated issues that officials are addressing ahead of the upcoming midterms.
Original reporting: BridgeDetroit — read the source article.
