(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/04/2024) In 2022, more than 94,000 registered Michigan voters faced an unprecedented attack on their right to vote, according to a new report.

Promote the Vote (PTV) spent more than one year investigating what it called the Election Integrity Fund and Force’s (EIF) “vast effort” that disproportionately targeted senior citizens and communities of color to block their vote in 2022.

“In addition to errors and ignorance, we found a shocking lack of care, irresponsible data matching, and plainly fraudulent allegations to bolster their attack on the freedom to vote,” according to the report, “Abusive, Erroneous, Discriminatory & Fraudulent Challenges Targeting Michigan’s Voters: The Problem & What To Do About It.” 

In 2024, PTV said, Michigan Fair Elections is investigating voters over age 90 and recruiting volunteers to verify the voters. MFE is using the website CheckMyVote.org, which EIF used in 2022, to label 98,000 older voters in Michigan as a “problem,” according to the report.

A message to EIF was not returned.

The report said older voters and communities of color in Ingham and Wayne counties as well as Detroit were “disproportionately targeted” in EIF’s scheme, which occurred over a six-month period in 2022.

PTV’s review also included records in Marquette and Grand Traverse counties.

The New York Times reported in September 2022 that EIF leaders acknowledged they lacked clear evidence that voters were ineligible to vote, but were hoping for a “closer examination of some potential errors.”

EIF, a 501(c)4 organization, has worked in Michigan since the 2020 election and in September 2022 was a named plaintiff in a lawsuit against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in an attempt to decertify President Joe Biden’s win.

According to the report, the three-phase scheme began in June 2022 when EIF emailed election officials what it called “The National Change of Address Project,” which referred to numerous debunked conspiracy theories about the state’s elections.

That email, which wasn’t signed by a Michigan voter, questioned the validity of more than 78,700 voters in Wayne County based, in part, on address mismatches, but PTV’s analysis showed that EIF’s spreadsheet showed the addresses matched.

PTV said EIF also targeted voters who hadn’t voted in some time, but state and federal laws prohibit removing someone from the vote rolls solely based on that reason.

Phase 2 occurred two weeks before the August 2022 primary when EIF challenged 22,000 voters based on what it called “inactive registration” or “chain of custody issues,” which PTV said ignored that city and township clerks verify absentee voter’s information prior to mailing an absentee ballot.

PTV said phase three occurred one week before the midterm elections when EIF targeted individual voters by filing what it called a “‘formal’ challenge through a credentialed challenger,” which doesn’t exist in Michigan law.

According to the report, EIF also made fraudulent allegations in its letters, including that some addresses were vacant lots or commercial property. However, PTV visited those targeted addresses and found an apartment building or homes on the lots.

Promote the Vote spearheaded the successful Proposal 22-2, which amended the Constitution to include voter identification requirements and nine days of early in-person voting.

Since its passage, Proposal 22-2 has been the subject of litigation, including a coalition of more than 170 Michigan voters who filed a petition in the Michigan Supreme Court seeking an injunction for a “clear interpretation and understanding” of the election law revisions created by the proposal.

Eleven lawmakers filed a separate suit arguing the petition initiative usurped their authority.