Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced this week that more than 318,000 inactive voter registrations are slated to be removed from Michigan’s voter rolls next month. Once canceled, the total number of out-of-date registrations removed under Benson’s administration will total 1.1 million.
Key Points:
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- Michigan has approximately 7.3 million active registered voters and a total voting age population of 7.9 million citizens.
- The state’s Qualified Voter File (QVF) includes approximately 577,000 inactive registrations slated for cancellation, in addition to approximately 600,000 inactive voter registrations belonging to voters who have not cast a ballot in the last six years.
- State and federal law requires inactive registrations to remain in the QVF unless election officials receive reliable information a citizen is no longer eligible to vote, which could include a voter surrendering a Michigan’s drivers license to another state or election mail returned as undeliverable by the USPS.
- Michigan also participates in a nonpartisan national tool that compares voter files across member states and alerts Michigan officials if a voter has recently registered in another state.
- When election officials receive reliable information, federal law requires that the voter receive notice and remains on the voter rolls for two federal election cycles unless they confirm they have moved.
- Clerks also receive information from the Social Security Death Index to remove them from the voter file.
- In many cases, voters with inactive registrations are still eligible but have chosen not to vote in recent elections.
For more information, please visit Michigan.gov/vote.
