ORTONVILLE, Mich. — A Michigan woman is raising questions after election-related mail addressed to both of her deceased parents arrived at her post office box, including one addressed to her father, who died more than two decades ago.
Sue Jacisin, an Oakland County resident, said she received the notices Saturday at her P.O. box in Ortonville. One was addressed to her, while two others carried the names of her parents.
“The problem with that is that my parents have been dead for many years,” Jacisin said.
Jacisin said her father died 22 years ago and would be 107 years old if he were alive today. Her mother died six years ago.Michigan woman questions election mail sent to parents who died years ago
I can’t continue my independent journalism without your support. If you aren’t yet consider becoming a paid subscriber for less than $1 per week. Click the button below.
The mailing was not an absentee ballot, and Jacisin said it did not appear to have been sent by the Michigan Department of State. Instead, she described it as an election-related solicitation containing information about registering to vote and obtaining an absentee ballot. The material directed recipients to Michigan.gov/Vote and advised them to contact their local clerk with questions. Jacisin said the return address was a P.O. box in Alexandria, Virginia.
Jacisin said she checked Michigan’s online voter registration system and could not find an active registration for either parent.
“They didn’t come up in the registration polls, so why are they getting requests to register and send in absentee ballots?” she said.
The Michigan Department of State says receiving this type of mail does not necessarily mean the person named on the mailing is currently registered to vote or eligible to receive a ballot.
According to the department, political parties, special interest groups and nonprofit organizations frequently send absentee ballot applications and other election-related mail. The state specifically acknowledges that those organizations sometimes use “outdated voter registries and mailing addresses.”
Voter information is also available through public records in Michigan, although sensitive information is protected. Publicly available voter information can include names, addresses and birth years, while Michigan law prohibits disclosure of information including driver’s license numbers, the month and day of birth, telephone numbers and digitized signatures.
That means outside organizations can obtain voter information and use it for political or voter outreach. Organizations may also use their own databases or other mailing lists. If those lists have not been updated to reflect deaths, moves or other changes, mail can continue arriving for people who are no longer eligible voters.
The fact that an organization sends an application to a deceased person does not mean that person has been issued a ballot or that a ballot could legally be cast in that person’s name.
Michigan says a voter generally must submit an absentee ballot application before a ballot is mailed unless the voter is already on the permanent absentee ballot list. Local clerks verify applications, and the state says signatures on absentee ballot envelopes are compared with signatures on file. Voting or attempting to obtain a ballot in another person’s name is illegal.
Michigan also says it regularly receives death information and removes deceased voters from the Qualified Voter File. The state’s voter database contains canceled registrations as well as active registrations, meaning the existence of someone’s information in an older or third-party database does not establish that the person remains eligible to vote.
Jacisin said the situation nevertheless concerns her because of how long her father has been dead.
“My father’s been dead for over two decades,” she said, adding that she had never previously received this type of election mailing addressed to him.
Jacisin also questioned what would happen if someone attempted to complete paperwork using a deceased person’s identity, while stressing that she would not do so.
“I’m not going to do it obviously,” she said. “But there’s a part of me that just thinks, what if I did? What would happen?”
Michigan election officials say safeguards are intended to prevent such an attempt from resulting in an illegally cast ballot. The Department of State says clerks verify absentee ballot applications and ballot-envelope signatures against voter records, and Michigan’s Qualified Voter File tracks ballot issuance and voting activity.
Michigan is not alone in allowing outside organizations to participate in absentee-voting outreach, but the rules governing third-party involvement vary significantly by state.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says some states impose restrictions on third parties distributing or collecting absentee or mail ballot applications. NCSL lists 19 states as restricting or prohibiting at least some third-party activities involving the distribution or collection of absentee ballot applications, while other states impose deadlines or other requirements and some specify no such restrictions. Michigan itself restricts who may return or solicit to return a completed absentee ballot application, even though third-party organizations may distribute applications.
That distinction is important: receiving unsolicited election mail is not the same as receiving an actual ballot, and restrictions on distributing applications are different from restrictions on collecting completed applications.
Jacisin said the mailing left her wanting to know where the organization obtained her parents’ information and why a database being used for election outreach still contained the name of a man who died 22 years ago.
“I have no idea how this transpired, why this transpired and why this is the first time it’s happened in 22 years,” Jacisin said.
I reached out to the Michigan Department of State for information about Jacisin’s case, including how third-party organizations obtain voter information, what safeguards are in place when applications are submitted in the names of deceased people and why deceased individuals may continue to receive election-related mail from outside organizations.
The department had not responded as of publication.
