Registration duplication not problem

• Tweet
• 

Isabella County has not been hit with voter registration duplication fraud, said Isabella County Clerk Joyce Swan.

“There have not been any recent cases of duplication for the township,” Swan said.

Students that registered at home did not need to re-register in Isabella County to vote. However, voters registered in other counties who did not register in person or have previously voted can visit the Isabella County Clerk’s Office to apply for an absentee ballot for their registered county.

Once voter information is entered into the system, the computer acts as a crime detector and prevents voter fraud, she said.

“If we get a new voter registration application, we enter it into the computer and it will show us if it is duplicated by the driver’s license number,” Swan said.

In scenarios involving a possible duplication of a voter registration, the key element in determining the falsity is the driver’s license number, Swan said. For example, if an individual from Ingham County registers to vote in Isabella County as well, the driver’s license number will appear in the computer system and she can determine when fraud has occurred.

For each count of forgery, there is a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

So far in the state, individuals have been arrested and some clerks have witnessed voters signing forms five times in five days, making it easy to filter through fraudulent applications.

Many students were not aware of this problem. Some Central Michigan University students have been concerned with the occurrences of the voter fraud and some fear it will alter this year’s election in the end.

Joel Fredrickson, a Mount Pleasant junior, said he is concerned about duplicate registrations.

“It concerns me because seeing as the election comes down to percentage, having that altered could ultimately screw up the election process, so hopefully all frauds are caught before Nov. 4,” he said.

news@cm-life.com