Detroit witnesses tell Michigan House panel they found affidavits and lists they say show fraudulent registrations and absentee votes

Witnesses from Detroit told the Michigan House Committee on Election Integrity that they have collected affidavits and voter-list records they say show people were fraudulently registered to vote and that absentee ballots were cast in their names without their knowledge.

Ramon Jackson, an advocate from Detroit, and Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church presented the testimony and supporting documents to the committee. Jackson said he and others obtained voting lists from local clerks and the state and then verified individual voters’ claims that they had not been present for the transactions that produced their registrations or absentee ballots. "We have ironclad, bear trap, hand in the cookie jar proof," Jackson said during his remarks.

Jackson told the committee that he has a civil case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, listed in testimony as case number 24-2006, and that the suit is aimed at the Secretary of State and county clerks. He said the entries linking some voters to driver's license transactions are incorrect because those voters were out of state with other state licenses at the times shown on the records. Jackson also said his group obtained lists they contend show mismatches between people allegedly voting and people who said they never voted or had moved away.

Jackson gave multiple examples he said fit a pattern: people who moved out of Detroit or to another state, people with little or no prior voting history, and people listed as having cast absentee ballots or voting while the witnesses say the registrants were living elsewhere. He cited dates and items from the documents provided to the committee, including a high-volume registration date of Oct. 9, 2020, and said his group compared clerk-provided lists (which he said included about 195,000 names in one set) with a state list he described as about 241,000 names.

Jackson described specific instances by name, including a witness he identified as John F. Kennedy (not a public official) and other residents he said were registered or had absentee ballots recorded in Detroit after they had moved. He also described homes where multiple people were registered to vote at an address the homeowners said they did not recognize and a property he called a "voter trap house." Jackson said some affidavits in the packet say the affiants did not vote, were living out of state on the dates shown, or otherwise did not authorize the registrations or absentee ballots.

Committee members pressed witnesses on verification issues and court decisions. Rep. Colazar asked how Jackson could know whether alleged illegal votes favored particular candidates given secret ballots; Jackson replied that he inferred where the alleged fraudulent votes went by which candidates won those contests in Detroit and by patterns he said were visible in the lists. Rep. Colazar also noted that a federal district court in the Eastern District had dismissed Jackson's earlier filing for lack of standing; Jackson said the dismissal was on standing grounds and not on evidence, and he compared that reasoning to other standing dismissals.

Rep. Colazar and Rep. Wooden asked about signature verification. A committee member noted that some absentee ballot applications cited in the Secretary of State's motion to dismiss had signatures that the state's Qualified Voter File (QVF) indicated were verified. Jackson said the presence of a verified signature on a prior application does not resolve his claims because, he said, affiants have sworn they did not submit the applications and he asserted that some records produced by state offices have not been provided in full to his team or to the courts.

Jackson said his group had discussed the materials with an investigator at the Secretary of State's office earlier in the week and that the office had not produced the exhibits he says would show who was present for the driver's license transactions the state cites. "Only people that can do a driver's license transaction are the Secretary of State," Jackson said, framing his allegation about how the registrations entered the system.

Committee Chair Smith thanked Jackson and Sewell for appearing and said the committee has a goal of ensuring the state's Qualified Voter File is clean and accurate. The chair closed the meeting by saying the committee would consider what it could do to examine and improve the rolls.

Votes and procedural actions at the start of the meeting were conducted by unanimous consent: the committee adopted minutes from March 18 and moved to excuse absent members; the committee adjourned after testimony.