Dead People Cast Ballots in Michigan, Data Researcher Alleges

A worker with the Detroit Department of Elections carries empty boxes used to organize absentee ballots after nearing the end of the absentee ballot count at the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 4, 2020. Elaine Cromie/Getty Images

About 9,500 voters whose names and dates of birth (DOB) match death records in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) are marked in the Michigan mail voting database as having returned ballots, according to an analysis of the state’s election data conducted by a data researcher.

The SSDI match is not a definitive proof that the voter is dead. It’s “quite common” for two people to share the same name and DOB, according to Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a right-leaning election watchdog not associated with the analysis.