Election audit shows no evidence of voter fraud

St. Joseph County Clerk Lindsay Oswald has forwarded to local media a media release from the Michigan Bureau of Elections.
The agency last week released its audit findings for 136 Detroit precincts from the November general election, largely finding that human error, not illegal activity, resulted in mismatches between the number of ballots and recorded voters.
Elections staff found no evidence of pervasive voter fraud or that widespread voting equipment failure led to the imbalances. To correct the problems identified in the audit, Bureau of Elections staff will work collaboratively with city officials to better train Election Day precinct workers beginning with this year’s Aug. 8 city primary election.
The audit found that the precinct imbalances, which did not affect the ability of Detroit residents to cast a ballot and have their vote counted, almost entirely were caused by precinct worker mistakes.
Elections staff members were able to bring 65 precincts into balance and also greatly reduce the extent of mismatches in the remaining precincts. The total number of ballots in question in the remaining precincts was less than 600 out of 250,000 total cast citywide, and Elections staff was able to reduce that number to less than 200.