(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/20/2024) Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater said in a letter that Sen. Ruth Johnson (R-Holly) had “misconceptions” regarding a question she had about non-citizens registered to vote based on numbers from a verification system. 

Johnson, a former Secretary of State, asked the Secretary of State on Nov. 4, the day before the presidential election, about 34,535 people that appeared as “non matches” in the Social Security Administration Help America Vote Verification (HAVV), stating those numbers were not U.S. citizens. 

“HAVV cannot be used, is not used, and never has been used to verify the citizenship status of an applicant. HAVV cannot be used for this purpose because it matches against the Social Security Administration database of social security numbers, and some non-citizens have social security numbers,” Brater stated in the letter. 

He said HAVV was created in 2004, and records of Michigan data being checked on the system date to 2011. Johnson served as the Secretary of State between 2011 and 2019. 

Brater stated the system tries to verify the last four digits of the social security number and provides information about whether the person is alive, dead, no match, or invalid. That is matched to a person, “not a citizen,” because individuals with green cards have a social security number but are not voting citizens. 

Johnson asked about the number from the HAVV that were new voter registrations and Brater said there was no way of determining how many of the 34,535 non-matching HAVV runs were part of any new voter registration, because the system was not used in that manner. 

He said if a match is made and the person was in the qualified voter file they would be able to have an absentee ballot sent to them. If the information didn’t match, the application would be rejected. 

“Notably, an individual could submit an unlimited number of unsuccessful applications using the Omniballot application with non-matching data. None of these applications would result in an absent voter ballot being issued, but each would generate a non-match in HAVV,” Brater said. 

The Omniballot application system is used by the Secretary of State to allow people with mental, physical or learning disabilities to apply for absentee ballots. 

He said a similar system was used for registered voters requesting an absentee ballot. 

He pointed to 612,674 non-matches that happened in Texas and said it didn’t correspond to the number of voter registrations, but to the number of queries that didn’t match. 

Brater said all the Michigan voters are registered with a Michigan driver’s license number and voters without a driver’s license can register through the mail or in-person with the last four digits of their social security number.  The voter also must have a federal identification or sign an affidavit before registering to vote. 

He said all registered voters need to provide some verification of identity before they are allowed eligibility to vote in Michigan. 

“I hope in the future you will alert us to your concerns prior to the day before a presidential election. Please know you can also find a full explanation of HAVV and how it has been used since 2004, including throughout your tenure as Secretary of State, at the following website,” Brater stated.