With the November 3, 2026 midterm elections just days away, two developments are drawing attention to election administration and the importance of tracking absentee ballot activity.

A United States Postal Service letter carrier in Utah has reportedly been indicted after allegedly discarding more than 300 mail-in ballots in a dumpster rather than delivering them to voters.

Meanwhile, the latest Michigan election data provided by CheckMyVote.org shows more than 1.7 million votes recorded statewide, with nearly 2.5 million ballots reported as sent.

For CheckMyVote, these developments highlight a fundamental concern about elections conducted through the mail: Every additional step between election officials and voters creates another point at which ballots can be delayed, mishandled, or lost.

USPS Letter Carrier Indicted Over More Than 300 Undelivered Ballots

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At CheckMyVote.org, we believe that free and fair elections are fundamental to our constitutional republic and that citizen participation is essential to preserving public trust in the electoral process. A dedicated CheckMyVote volunteer and longtime participant in the Macomb County Patriots gatherings personally submitted the following announcement to CheckMyVote requesting that we share it with our readers as an expression of patriotism, freedom, and the importance of protecting our elections. The volunteer emphasized that the group’s perseverance belongs to its many dedicated members rather than any one individual. We are pleased to acknowledge our amazing volunteers and their contribution and collective commitment in Macomb County.

Thank you to all of our dedicated volunteers and what they do to help CheckMyVote fight for election transparency!

Macomb County Patriots have been gathering continuously on Sundays for more than five years in support of our Faith in God and the Liberty. He has provided. America’s patriotic values have been on display in support of our president Donald J. Trump and the Independence founded by our forefathers over 250 years ago! We believe Election Day is a cherished exercise in Liberty and deserves our relentless support for Freedom!

We declare that free and fair elections are at the core of our Constitution and American Patriotism! Standing with the Flag and declaring our Trust in God is more than an afternoon event. We have inspired many who drive past us with hope when times were difficult and our enemies threatened to end the Republic for which we stand! Election Day will decide our Nation’s fate for many years to come.

Join us in this moment of history! Take out a few minutes to help us express the fundamental right of Free Speech in our community. Be an example of Patriotism and Citizenship guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America. Demonstrate the importance of your core values by voting on Election Day! Generations of immigrants have sacrificed everything for this basic human right. America’s voice of freedom called out to the world and many chose to hear it. Bring your flags and signs to add your voice!

We are people supporting an agenda based on American Idealism and many hate the idea of individual personal freedom. Our Rights are God-given and threatened by godless ideals. Defending against these threats calls for Truth and Justice as shown by our Christian Values of trust and respect for all. We are calling upon our brothers and sisters to recognize our shared values as the best example of our Rights and American Patriotism!

The road to despotism is easy and electing those who ignore our Bill of Rights is the surest way to ruin. Working our way back from it will be much harder if Americans fail to defeat them on Election Day. We know how great America has been during previous generational struggles and civil strife. We can Make America Great Again by defeating those that hate our country and the Flag for which it stands!

Join CheckMyVote.org

Take Action with CheckMyVote: Protect Your Address. Restore Trust in Elections.

Election transparency starts with informed citizens. CheckMyVote.org gives Americans the tools to examine public voter records, identify potential irregularities, and help improve voter-roll accuracy through lawful, citizen-led oversight.

Currently operating in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Rhode Island, CheckMyVote offers voter-registration research, address auditing, absentee-ballot tracking where available, and opportunities to participate in volunteer investigations.

Explore Our Tools and Get Involved

• Audit Your Address: See voter registrations associated with your address and investigate potential discrepancies.

• Sign Up for V-ALERTS: Receive notifications about changes to election records associated with your address, including registration and voting activity. Currently available in Michigan, Ohio, and Rhode Island. Paid subscription.

• Explore Absentee Ballot Data: Review available absentee-ballot information and election activity through participating state platforms.

• Become a Volunteer: Help research public voter records, verify potential irregularities, and support lawful voter-roll maintenance.

• Join Our Affiliate Program: Earn 20% recurring commissions by introducing others to CheckMyVote’s subscription services.

• Support Our Mission: Contributions help fund voter-file acquisition, FOIA requests, data analysis, technology, and server costs.

Bring CheckMyVote to Your State!

Don’t see your state listed? Help us launch there!

CheckMyVote works with dedicated State Champions and grassroots volunteers to expand its citizen-powered voter-roll transparency platform nationwide.

We’ll help guide your team through acquiring voter-file data, onboarding the state, training volunteers, and working with local election officials. State launches involve setup and ongoing maintenance costs, with pricing based on each state’s requirements.

Be the State Champion who brings CheckMyVote to your community.

Visit CheckMyVote.org to sign up, explore our services, contribute, or use our Contact Us form to start bringing CheckMyVote to your state.

CheckMyVote.org

President Donald Trump has announced a proposed $1 million reward for information about voter fraud that leads to an arrest and conviction, placing renewed national attention on election integrity just days before the November 3, 2026 midterm elections.

In an October 26 Truth Social post, President Trump stated:

“Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The announcement underscores the need for tools that help Americans research voting data, identify violations, document, investigate, and ultimately hold wrongdoers accountable. It also creates an opportunity to discuss the role of citizen-accessible voter data in supporting lawful election oversight.

CheckMyVote was established close on the heels of the 2020 general election with a mission to bring much-needed transparency to voter rolls. The platform provides American citizens access to public voter-file information and analytical tools designed to identify records that may warrant further examination.

Today, CheckMyVote.org has become an indispensable tool in the arsenal of a citizen investigator across 5 states, averaging 3000 unique visitors per day, and growing.

Using CMV’s suite of tools, volunteer researchers have uncovered numerous instances of fraudulent voting activity ranging from non-citizens voting in American elections to voting from illegals addresses such as coffee shops and otherwise illegal voting registration addresses.

From Suspicion to Evidence: How it works

CheckMyVote.org provides tools designed to help users investigate unlawful voting activity associated with invalid addresses, non-existent or deceased individuals, low-propensity voters, overseas citizens and vulnerable population such as elders living in nursing homes.

CMV’s internal system workflow facilitates researching suspicious records from the point of initial suspicion all the way to substantiating and documenting evidence associated with each single case. The submission part is left to you so you can reap the rewards of your hard work. Don’t forget to tip CMV with 5% of your rewards if you win!

It’s precisely the above kinds of activities that culminate in large-scale election fraud that America is ailing from.

The tools that CMV provides are designed to help eradicate the disease of election fraud. President Trump’s incentive is just what’s needed at this juncture to boost efforts in that direction.

CMV urges users to start investigating in their proverbial backyards and then expand their research to their local precinct, township, and then county.

CMV’s toolset provides visibility into records at precinct, township, and county levels. Volunteers typically research multiple towns of their choice across various anomalous categories such as deceased (starting with Age 100+), duplicate registrations, out of state, or intra-state moves, illegal addresses, to name a few, using their own creative and lawful methods.

CheckMyVote.org

Michigan’s November 3 Election: Daily Absentee Ballot Tracking

As Michigan approaches the November 3, 2026 general election, CheckMyVote.org is focusing on one important opportunity for citizen oversight: daily absentee ballot tracking.

With absentee and early voting underway, CheckMyVote obtains a daily list of those who have voted and those who have not yet returned their absentee ballot. This data is available to CheckMyVote via FOIA and has been made available for use by citizens. CheckMyVote’s Michigan tools to examine voting activity associated with any voter registrations associated with their address(es).

Perhaps yours or your family members’ residence is being used as a voting residence by unknown people. Perhaps a deceased family member is being sent absentee ballots; whether to a nursing home or to an address where they may have resided in the past, or you have reason to question whether voting activity has been recorded under that person’s registration.

CheckMyVote provides Michigan absentee ballot tracking and voter-record research tools designed to help citizens investigate the above possibilities and be a potential beneficiary of President Trump’s reward.

The absentee ballot tracking service is currently available only in Michigan at mi.checkmyvote.org.

CheckMyVote Michigan

Biggest Group of Potential Reward Beneficiaries

The biggest group of potential beneficiaries of President Trump’s reward are those who can identify fraudulent voting activity occurring at their address or to their family members, especially vulnerable family members such as elders and those in nursing homes.

CheckMyVote.org puts the tools necessary for your research right at your fingertips.

If you can bring first-hand knowledge of fraud occurring on your backyard or your township you may submit your fraud report it at https://www.usa.gov/voter-fraud.

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CheckMyVote’s Tools for Election Transparency

CheckMyVote currently operates in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Rhode Island, with certain features available only in participating states.

Citizens can use the platform to:

• Audit My Address: Examine voter registrations associated with a particular address.

• Search Name / ID: Research available voter-file records.

• Review Voter History: Examine publicly available election participation and registration information.

• Analyze Registration Changes: Review records added to or removed from voter rolls.

• Explore Election Data: Investigate registrations and voting histories associated with potentially invalid addresses, possible duplicate or cloned registrations, and records involving nonexistent or deceased individuals. These indicators require independent verification before any conclusion about fraudulent voting can be reached.

In Michigan, available election data also allows users to examine absentee ballot activity leading into Election Day, including information at the address, precinct, and county levels where supported.

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Expanding Access to Citizen-Led Election Research

CheckMyVote is exploring ways to make its investigative tools more accessible through a subscription offering. One option under consideration is an affordable monthly plan providing access to a broader set of research and analysis features.

The proposed pricing and access terms are not yet finalized. Any new subscription offering will be announced with clear information about included features, limitations, and applicable Terms & Conditions.

Subscription revenue would help fund the ongoing work of obtaining official voter files, maintaining data infrastructure, processing records, and expanding CheckMyVote’s tools into additional states.

Our objective is to make lawful, data-driven election research accessible to more citizens while maintaining a clear distinction between identifying a questionable record and establishing that a crime occurred.

In the meantime, we encourage citizens to begin using the tools already available. There is no need to wait for the announcement of new subscription options to start exploring CheckMyVote’s public election data.

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Start With What You Know. Check Your Address. Follow the Data.

As November 3 approaches, CheckMyVote encourages citizens to begin with the information they know best: their own voter registration, their household, and their family records.

Visit mi.checkmyvote.org and sign-up to explore the available tools.

If something appears incorrect, flag it within CMV for triage, consider possible administrative explanations, and contact the appropriate election office for verification.

Know your address. Check for unexplained voting activity or ballot mailing activity associated with your address or family members.

Follow Michigan’s daily absentee ballot activity leading into November 3.

Dear Patriotic Americans, America needs us.

Let’s do this!

With Michigan’s November 3, 2026 midterm election less than two weeks away, election activity continues to increase across the state. According to the latest voter-file data received by CheckMyVote on October 22, 920,773 votes have been recorded, 1,196,759 ballots are listed as sent, and another 41,860 ballots remain in the not-yet-sent category.

The updated figures represent a substantial increase in recorded voting activity compared with the previous dashboard snapshot, underscoring the importance of accurate records, public transparency, and informed participation as Election Day approaches.

Check My Vote's Michigan Dashboard

Michigan’s Election by the Numbers

Compared with the previously supplied figures, Michigan’s recorded votes increased by 59,414, while the ballots-sent category decreased by 52,986 and the not-yet-sent category decreased by 324. These categories should be interpreted according to CheckMyVote’s underlying reporting definitions. Changes between snapshots do not, by themselves, establish discrepancies or misconduct.

Michigan’s largest counties continue to account for a significant share of the state’s election activity. Wayne County leads with 144,533 recorded votes, followed by Oakland County with 131,217, Macomb County with 81,447, and Kent County with 60,770. Together, these four counties account for 417,967 recorded votes, approximately 45% of the statewide total.

These numbers demonstrate the scale of election administration already underway. They also provide citizens with an opportunity to follow the publicly reported data county by county through CheckMyVote’s November 2026 Election Overview.

A Message from CheckMyVote Founder Phani Mantravadi

For CheckMyVote founder Phani Mantravadi, the approaching election is about more than statistics. It is also about participating in the democratic process and making sure the records associated with your household are accurate.

“I personally prefer to vote in-person on the day of the election, but I can understand the case for voting absentee when you’re not entirely sure if you’d be able to vote in-person on Election Day,” Mantravadi explained.

“Regardless of how you vote, it is important to fulfill your civic duty to vote in this upcoming midterm election on November 3, 2026.”

Mantravadi also encourages Michigan residents to examine the voter records associated with their homes. CheckMyVote’s Audit My Address tool makes it easy to see which registrations are connected to an address and identify entries that may deserve further verification.

An unfamiliar registration or address association does not necessarily mean someone has voted improperly. However, reviewing public records and contacting the appropriate election officials when something appears incorrect can help support accurate voter rolls.

CheckMyVote.org

Check Your Address Before Election Day

CheckMyVote was established to give citizens greater access to public voter-file data and the tools needed to examine it responsibly. Michigan residents can use the platform to audit their addresses, search available voter records, review election activity, and research potential discrepancies.

With November 3 approaching, this is an opportunity to verify the information associated with your home, make a plan to vote, and encourage others to participate.

Don’t wait until Election Day to become informed about your voter records.

Visit mi.checkmyvote.org to explore the latest statewide data and use Audit My Address.

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Take Action with CheckMyVote: Protect Your Address. Restore Trust in Elections.

Election transparency starts with informed citizens. CheckMyVote.org gives Americans the tools to examine public voter records, identify potential irregularities, and help improve voter-roll accuracy through lawful, citizen-led oversight.

Currently operating in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Rhode Island, CheckMyVote offers voter-registration research, address auditing, absentee-ballot tracking where available, and opportunities to participate in volunteer investigations.

Explore Our Tools and Get Involved

• Audit Your Address: See voter registrations associated with your address and investigate potential discrepancies.

• Sign Up for V-ALERTS: Receive notifications about changes to election records associated with your address, including registration and voting activity. Currently available in Michigan, Ohio, and Rhode Island. Paid subscription.

• Explore Absentee Ballot Data: Review available absentee-ballot information and election activity through participating state platforms.

• Become a Volunteer: Help research public voter records, verify potential irregularities, and support lawful voter-roll maintenance.

• Join Our Affiliate Program: Earn 20% recurring commissions by introducing others to CheckMyVote’s subscription services.

• Support Our Mission: Contributions help fund voter-file acquisition, FOIA requests, data analysis, technology, and server costs.

Bring CheckMyVote to Your State!

Don’t see your state listed? Help us launch there!

CheckMyVote works with dedicated State Champions and grassroots volunteers to expand its citizen-powered voter-roll transparency platform nationwide.

We’ll help guide your team through acquiring voter-file data, onboarding the state, training volunteers, and working with local election officials. State launches involve setup and ongoing maintenance costs, with pricing based on each state’s requirements.

Be the State Champion who brings CheckMyVote to your community.

Visit CheckMyVote.org to sign up, explore our services, contribute, or use our Contact Us form to start bringing CheckMyVote to your state.

CheckMyVote.org

A documented absentee-ballot fraud case, newly uncovered Detroit records, and CheckMyVote’s latest data highlight why protecting vulnerable voters deserves continued attention.

Election fraud is not merely a hypothetical concern. In Michigan, a nursing home employee was sentenced to jail after admitting to making false statements on absentee-ballot applications involving residents under her care. Now, new research involving nursing homes and adult foster care facilities is raising additional questions about how vulnerable voters’ identities and absentee-ballot applications are protected.

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A record recently identified through CheckMyVote provides a useful example. The record lists 6659 Schaefer Road #1191, Dearborn, Michigan 48126 as the address associated with an absentee ballot. Our initial review raised a question because the location is associated with a commercial mail business rather than an ordinary residential address.

Further examination of Michigan election law, however, reveals an important distinction that deserves to be explained carefully.

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Check your own address to see whether an absentee ballot has been sent or a voting record is associated with it, while CheckMyVote volunteers can use new tools to research potentially ineligible registrations throughout Michigan.

Election transparency should not begin after an election is over. Citizens should have access to useful information while the election is actually taking place.

That is why we are excited to announce a major new feature from CheckMyVote: our Michigan Absentee Ballot Tracker for the November 2026 election is now live.

The new tools at CheckMyVote’s Michigan portal give Michigan residents and CheckMyVote volunteers another way to examine election information as absentee ballots are distributed and voting gets underway. The system is designed around a simple principle that has guided CheckMyVote from the beginning: citizens should be able to look at the public election data connected to their own communities, ask reasonable questions, and help identify records that warrant additional research.

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Start With Your Own Address

One of the most useful parts of this new feature is also one of the simplest.

Go to CheckMyVote and select “Audit My Address.” From there, users can check their address to see whether the available election data indicates that an absentee ballot has been sent to a registration associated with that address or whether a voting record is associated with someone registered there.

Think about how important that is. Most people know who currently lives in their home. They often know whether a former resident moved years ago, whether an adult child moved away, or whether a name associated with the address simply does not make sense.

CheckMyVote gives citizens a practical way to compare that firsthand knowledge with voter-registration and election information.

If something appears unusual, that does not automatically establish fraud or an illegal vote. It creates a starting point for verification. Election data can contain timing issues, legitimate registrations that are unfamiliar to a current resident, or records requiring additional context. CheckMyVote’s approach is to identify potential discrepancies, research them, document the facts, and allow the evidence to determine what happened.

Absentee Ballot Tracker

Follow the November Election as It Happens

The new November 2026 Election Overview provides another level of transparency by tracking key absentee and voting statistics. As of the September 30 launch, CheckMyVote is displaying information across three important categories: voters recorded as having already voted, absentee ballots that have been sent, and absentee ballots that have not yet been sent.

The data will be updated daily, allowing users to return throughout the election and see how those numbers change.

Instead of waiting until November to begin asking questions, citizens now have an opportunity to observe portions of the process as it unfolds.

➡️View the November 2026 Election Overview

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A Powerful New Tool for CheckMyVote Volunteers

The public-facing address audit is only part of what we are launching.

Signed-in CheckMyVote volunteers can use the platform to examine how many absentee ballots are being sent to registrations that have been flagged as potentially ineligible and how many flagged registrations subsequently show voting activity. Those classifications are subject to additional volunteer research and verification. A flag is not, by itself, a determination that an individual is ineligible or that an improper ballot has been cast.

That research component is critical to the CheckMyVote model.

Our goal is to make election data understandable and actionable so trained citizens can investigate potential discrepancies, document what they find, and help improve the accuracy of voter rolls.

The distinction between a potential issue and a verified issue is precisely why volunteers matter. Data can identify a record that deserves attention. Human research can help determine what that record actually represents.

CheckMyVote.org

From Voter Rolls to Ballot Activity

CheckMyVote began with a straightforward question: Who is registered to vote from my address?

The Absentee Ballot Tracker represents an important expansion of that concept.

Citizens can now look beyond registration information and examine available absentee-ballot and voting-status information associated with their address during an active election. Volunteers, meanwhile, can use the broader dataset to research potentially problematic registrations and follow relevant changes as updated information becomes available.

That creates a much more dynamic form of citizen oversight.

It also means that when volunteers discover something unusual, they have an opportunity to investigate while the information is timely rather than attempting to reconstruct everything months or years later.

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Candidates Can Request Detailed Data

CheckMyVote also wants candidates to know that these tools can provide valuable visibility into the election process.

Candidates running for office who are interested in more detailed reports can contact CheckMyVote to request available data. This can provide campaigns with additional information for understanding voter-registration and absentee-ballot activity relevant to their races, subject to the scope and limitations of the underlying data.

Check Your Address Today

This is exactly what CheckMyVote was created to do: take election information that can otherwise feel distant, technical, or inaccessible and put useful tools into the hands of ordinary citizens.

So start with the place you know better than anyone else: your own home.

Visit CheckMyVote’s Michigan Election Overview and click Audit My Address. Check the registrations associated with your address. Review the available absentee-ballot and voting-status information. If something does not look right, do not jump to conclusions. Document it, research it, and help us establish the facts.

Then consider becoming a CheckMyVote volunteer. The more citizens willing to carefully examine public records and verify potential discrepancies, the more useful this system becomes.

Election integrity does not belong exclusively to political parties, government agencies, candidates, or election officials. Accurate voter rolls and transparent election administration are public responsibilities, and citizens have an important role in examining the public data behind both.

The November 2026 election is already underway.

Check your address. Check the data. Ask questions. Verify the facts.

Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini says more than 5,000 registration forms have arrived in his county, raising questions about duplicate submissions, registration-drive oversight, and the burden on local election officials.

On September 18, 2026, Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini released a video describing what he said was a growing administrative problem for local election officials: large quantities of voter-registration applications arriving from outside organizations, many of which reportedly require additional review before they can be processed. More than 5,000 registration cards had come through Macomb County, with additional submissions continuing to arrive. Local clerks had reported applications for people already registered, signatures that appeared inconsistent with existing records, and multiple submissions involving the same individual.

The most striking allegation involved one clerk who reported receiving 47 registration applications for the same person. Forlini also said clerks had characterized approximately nine out of every ten forms in the batch as not legitimate. This demands careful examination.

An application submitted for someone who is already registered may be redundant without being fraudulent. A duplicate submission may reflect an administrative mistake, a poorly managed registration drive, or intentional misconduct. A questioned signature likewise requires an appropriate review before any conclusion can be reached about its authenticity. Understanding which explanation applies is essential to determining both the extent of the problem and the appropriate response and we must demand transparency.

How much time are local election offices spending reviewing registration applications that ultimately produce no change to the voter file?

Every application must be handled according to the applicable registration procedures. When an office receives multiple forms for an existing voter, staff may need to examine the records, determine whether the submission contains updated information, identify possible duplicates, and resolve discrepancies. Those tasks can become particularly demanding as elections approach.

Michigan’s Qualified Voter File, or QVF, is designed to identify an existing registration when a new application is processed. According to the Michigan Department of State, the existing record is ordinarily updated rather than a second registration being created. When officials identify separate duplicate records for the same person, established procedures allow those records to be merged. These safeguards address duplicate entries in the voter database, although they do not necessarily eliminate the staff time required to review repeated paper submissions.

The volume and quality of the applications arriving at local offices point to weaknesses in the registration process.

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Registration Drives, Compensation, and Accountability

Third-party voter-registration drives are a recognized means of helping eligible citizens register. Michigan permits individuals to assist with registration drives, but state rules place limits on how those activities may be conducted.

The Michigan Department of State states that registration drives may not compensate workers according to the number of people registered or the number registered with a particular political party. It also states that workers may not provide incentives to individuals in exchange for registering or voting, and that registration-drive workers may not independently fill in missing information on an applicant’s form.

Determining whether a particular organization or individual engaged in prohibited conduct requires evidence about the compensation arrangement, the applications submitted, and the circumstances under which they were collected.

A documented review of the Macomb County submissions is critical to answer several separate questions: How many applications were duplicates? How many were legitimate updates to existing registrations? How many contained errors requiring correction? Were any applications submitted without the named individual’s authorization? And did any organization use a compensation arrangement prohibited by Michigan law?

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What Earlier Macomb County Reviews Establish

The September registration-card allegations follow an earlier dispute involving Forlini’s review of noncitizens appearing in Michigan voter records.

In January 2026, the Michigan Bureau of Elections reviewed a list of 15 individuals identified by Forlini’s office as possible noncitizens on the voter file. The bureau reported that its review identified U.S. citizens among those flagged. Of the three individuals on the list with voting histories, the state said one was a U.S. citizen who had legally voted, another remained under investigation, and the third had last voted in 2018 and had already had their registration canceled in 2022.

The bureau’s findings illustrate why an initial database match or administrative anomaly must be distinguished from a confirmed eligibility violation. They do not resolve the separate September allegations about registration-drive submissions, which require their own records and review.

CheckMyVote.org

The reported volume of applications and the account of 47 forms for one person are sufficient to warrant a focused examination. An administrative review must establish the total number of forms received during the relevant period, the number associated with existing voters, the number containing new or updated registration information, and the number referred for further investigation.

It also needs to distinguish between applications that were rejected, applications that required correction, and applications that resulted in changes to the QVF. The central question is whether the procedures governing the collection, submission, and initial processing of applications are operating legally, particularly when large batches arrive shortly before an election.

The public must be able to trust that legitimate applications are processed promptly, discrepancies are resolved using documented procedures, and suspected violations are investigated.

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Why Voter-File Accuracy Remains Central to CheckMyVote’s Work

CheckMyVote’s work focuses on making voter-registration information more accessible for examination and helping citizens identify records that demand further review. The Macomb County reports highlights the importance of distinguishing an anomaly from an error and an error from evidence of unlawful conduct.

For individuals checking their own registration information, Michigan provides an official voter portal where residents can confirm their registration status and review their recorded address. Citizens who discover an error can contact their city or township clerk to determine what correction is needed.

Sign up now for CheckMyVote’s V-ALERTS now.

For more information about CheckMyVote’s voter-registration data tools and volunteer activities, visit CheckMyVote.org .

At CheckMyVote, our mission is built around the principle that citizens deserve election systems they can examine, understand, and trust. That is why we pay attention when candidates for public office make election administration and voter-roll accuracy substantive parts of their platforms rather than talking points that disappear after Election Day.

One candidate doing that in Rhode Island is Victor G. “Vic” Mellor, a Republican candidate for Congress in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District. Mellor qualified for the September 9 Republican primary alongside Dr. Stephen Skoly. Mellor is running as a Republican challenger in RI-02. If you are in Rhode Island, be sure you vote Mellor this Wednesday!

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A Candidate Talking About the Issues CheckMyVote Works on Every Day

Mellor is a Marine Corps veteran, businessman and Rhode Island native who spent decades building businesses before entering congressional politics. His platform covers affordability, jobs, free speech, medical freedom, parental rights, the Second Amendment and election administration.

For CheckMyVote, it is that final issue that warrants particular attention.

Mellor has established a dedicated Voter ID & Election Integrity platform. He supports photo identification for voting, transparent election procedures, accurate voter rolls and greater accountability in election administration. He also advocates federal voter-identification standards while recognizing the states’ role in administering elections.

Read Vic Mellor’s election-integrity platform

There is an especially important point of intersection with CheckMyVote’s work. For Mellor, election transparency includes allowing Rhode Islanders to understand how their votes are handled and that accountability requires maintaining accurate voter rolls.

Voter registration records are a foundational component of election administration. Citizens should be able to examine public election data, identify apparent discrepancies, ask questions and receive meaningful answers from the officials entrusted with maintaining those records.

Vic Mellor for Rhode Island

An Important Change for Rhode Island’s Independent Voters

There is also an important change in Rhode Island election law that unaffiliated voters should understand heading into the September 9 primary. Rhode Island allows voters who are not affiliated with a political party to participate in either party’s primary. Under legislation that took effect in 2024, an unaffiliated voter who chooses to vote in the Republican primary does not become a member of the Republican Party simply by casting that ballot. The voter remains unaffiliated automatically, with no additional disaffiliation form required. The same rule applies to an unaffiliated voter participating in the Democratic primary. Rhode Island’s Secretary of State confirms that unaffiliated voters may vote in any party primary, while voters already affiliated with a political party remain subject to the state’s rules for changing party affiliation.

Mellor’s campaign has also emphasizes grassroots involvement in election administration and election integrity. Grassroots organizations associated with Mellor have advocated for and financially supported efforts to improve election-process workflows, with a particular emphasis on reliability, transparency, and public confidence. Mellor’s platform emphasizes the importance of voter-roll accuracy, transparent election procedures, and citizen involvement as priorities.

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From Business and the Marines to a Congressional Campaign

Mellor is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and entrepreneur who spent approximately three decades operating businesses and employing working people. His campaign has adopted the language “Rhode Islanders First” and his candidacy seeks to bring a business-oriented approach to affordability, economic development and government accountability.

Mellor has also made medical freedom and parental authority prominent pieces of his campaign. His published healthcare platform emphasizes informed decision-making, parental consent, healthcare choice and opposition to government mandates.

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Election Integrity Is Where Our Missions Intersect

CheckMyVote does not expect every candidate who discusses election integrity to agree with us about every question. Nor does mentioning election integrity place a candidate beyond scrutiny. Candidates should be questioned about the actual policies they support, the evidence behind their claims and what legislation they would pursue once in office.

But we strongly believe that all candidates should be willing to discuss the mechanics of elections openly.

How are voter rolls maintained? How are registrations verified? How can citizens examine election records? What safeguards exist to detect inaccurate or outdated registrations? How should election officials respond when citizens identify apparent anomalies? How do we make voting accessible to every eligible citizen while maintaining systems that are accurate, transparent and auditable?

Those are legitimate public-policy questions, and Mellor has chosen to put them on his congressional platform.

His campaign summarizes its approach with the phrase “easy to vote in, but hard to cheat.” It says that transparency and accountability should be central to Rhode Island elections and specifically identifies accurate voter rolls as part of that objective.

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Rhode Island Voters Will Make the Decision

Mellor is not the only Republican seeking the nomination. Rhode Island’s official candidate database lists both Mellor and Stephen Skoly on the September 9 Republican primary ballot, with Skoly carrying the party endorsement. The same official records list Democratic incumbent Seth Magaziner on the Democratic primary ballot.

CheckMyVote encourages citizens to investigate candidates for themselves, examine their records and platforms, ask difficult questions, and participate in the election process. Our purpose in highlighting Mellor is straightforward: a candidate for federal office in a state where CheckMyVote is working has made voter-roll accuracy, election transparency and election integrity explicit components of his campaign, and our readers should be aware of that.

Those interested in Mellor’s complete platform, biography and campaign materials can review them directly:

Vic Mellor for Congress

The larger principle remains the same regardless of who wins this primary or the general election. Election integrity cannot be something candidates discuss only when an election is approaching. Accurate voter rolls, transparent procedures and meaningful citizen oversight require sustained attention from citizens, election officials and elected representatives alike.

That is the work CheckMyVote will continue doing.

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As Americans enjoy this Labor Day weekend, most of us will understandably think about family, cookouts, the unofficial end of summer, and the generations of American workers who built this country. Labor Day is officially an American holiday honoring the social and economic contributions of workers, and the first recognized Labor Day celebration was held in New York City in 1882. Congress eventually made the first Monday in September a federal holiday in 1894.

But there the true history of Labor Day is important to remember. The late nineteenth-century labor movement existed alongside powerful socialist and revolutionary movements, and some figures associated with early labor organizing held political beliefs considered radical even by other labor leaders of their time. The U.S. Department of Labor itself notes that Matthew Maguire, one of the two men credited with originating Labor Day, held radical political views that even labor leader Samuel Gompers did not want the holiday to be associated with.

Labor Day may have been formally Americanized, placed in September, and transformed over generations into a celebration of American workers, but we must never forget the ideological principles that surrounded the labor movements that created it. May Day ultimately became the movement’s more explicit revolutionary observance, with the International Socialist Congress designating May 1 as an international workers’ day in 1889 before it became a defining political spectacle across communist states. Moving America’s labor holiday to September may have helped distance it from May Day, but we should never forget the Marxist ideology that sought to claim the worker as its own. Labor Day is a Marxist Holiday, and CheckMyVote will use it to remember what happens when governments promising liberation in the name of the working class gain absolute power.

So perhaps Labor Day weekend offers Americans an opportunity to remember two things simultaneously: the dignity of honest work and the terrible consequences that followed when political movements promised to liberate workers by concentrating extraordinary power in the state.

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The Promise of the Worker, the Reality of the State

Marxist and communist movements repeatedly present themselves as champions of ordinary working people. Yet when revolutionary communist parties actually obtain political power they produce forced collectivization, political imprisonment, famine, executions, censorship, religious persecution, and enormous systems of forced labor.

The human cost remains staggering. Some have placed the overall number of victims of communist regimes between roughly 85 million and 100 million.

Under Soviet communism, millions were imprisoned within the Gulag system. Hoover Institution archival research reports that approximately 18 million people passed through the Gulag over its existence and that millions perished. Stalin’s forced collectivization and related policies also contributed to the catastrophic famine of 1932–33, killing millions.

The catastrophe was not confined to the Soviet Union. Maoist China experienced the Great Leap Forward and subsequent political campaigns that resulted in mass famine and persecution. Cambodia provides another horrifying example. After the communist Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, it attempted to construct a classless agrarian society through forced labor, social engineering, repression, and execution. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that nearly two million Cambodians died in less than four years, at least one-quarter of the country’s population.

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A Different Kind of Labor Day Lesson

For CheckMyVote, there is a reason this history remains relevant. Our work is built around a simple democratic principle: government belongs to the people, and citizens must be able to scrutinize the institutions exercising power in their name.

That principle reaches far beyond voter rolls.

Free societies depend upon independent citizens who can question government, examine public records, criticize political leaders, organize peacefully, speak openly, own property, practice their faith, and participate meaningfully in choosing those who govern them.

So enjoy the cookout. Honor the American worker. Celebrate the men and women whose labor built our communities, businesses, farms, factories, infrastructure, and families. But this Labor Day weekend, remember something else too.

The twentieth century gave humanity an enormous body of evidence about what happens when governments claiming to act on behalf of “the workers” decide that individual rights, private institutions, political opposition, and human liberty are obstacles to achieving a supposedly greater collective purpose.

At CheckMyVote, our contribution is much narrower but grounded in the same fundamental civic principle: citizens should be able to see, understand, question, and participate in the systems by which they are governed.

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At CheckMyVote, we remain committed to helping citizens better understand voter registration records, election administration, and the importance of accurate public data.

If you’re interested in learning more about voter roll transparency, exploring publicly available voter data, or following developments related to election administration, subscribe to our newsletter for future updates.

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More than 700,000 Michigan residents signed a petition supporting the Michigan Citizenship Requirement for Voting Amendment, a proposal that sought to place citizenship verification and voter identification requirements before voters. Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan ultimately submitted 709,841 signatures, more than 263,000 above the number required for a proposed constitutional amendment. Yet after Michigan’s statistical sampling and review process, the petition ultimately fell short of certification by just three recognized signatures within a sample of 1,000.

For CheckMyVote, one of the most important parts of this story is not simply what happened with the numbers. It is what happened to the citizens behind them. We sat down with CheckMyVote volunteers Hal Wolfe and Suzanne Meloeny, both of whom helped gather signatures and attended the August 24 Board of State Canvassers meeting in Lansing. Both were particularly troubled by hearing the petition-gathering effort characterized during the proceedings as “sloppy.”

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When CheckMyVote founder Phani Mantravadi watched Sheriff Dar Leaf’s recent video discussing the case of a person who Leaf says had been registered to vote while still a noncitizen, Phani’s reaction was immediate. To him, this was not an abstract election-policy debate. It was remarkably close to the question that had sent him looking for Michigan’s voter file nearly six years ago.

“This was exactly the driving force behind CheckMyVote, that was the seed that grew into what CheckMyVote is today.”

In December 2020, Phani was a legal immigrant from India on the path to American citizenship. He is now a proud naturalized American citizen, but at that time there was one thing he knew with certainty about his own election history: because he was not yet a citizen, there should have been no voting record associated with him. As reports and allegations concerning ineligible registrations and voting circulated after the 2020 general election, Phani began asking a question that was both personal and consequential.

What, exactly, did Michigan’s voter file say about him?

Rather than assuming that the answer was correct, Phani decided to look for himself. He obtained Michigan voter-roll data in December 2020 and began examining it.

That simple act of verification eventually became something far larger: CheckMyVote.

“I Wanted to Check My Own Name”

Phani’s story is important because it explains the philosophy behind CheckMyVote better than any mission statement could. The project was not originally born from a theoretical discussion about election administration. It grew from the experience of a legal immigrant who respected the distinction between being lawfully present in the United States and possessing the uniquely American right to vote. Before becoming a citizen, Phani understood that he was not eligible to participate in federal or Michigan elections. He therefore believed there should be a way to independently verify that the public voter file reflected that reality.

The principle is straightforward. Election integrity should not depend exclusively upon citizens being told that government databases are accurate. Public confidence becomes stronger when citizens can examine public records, understand what those records contain, identify apparent discrepancies, and bring legitimate questions to the officials charged with maintaining those records.

That is what CheckMyVote is.

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Why Sheriff Leaf’s Story Hit So Close to Home

Leaf’s August 28 video concerns a case that he says involves a person whose citizenship application was suspended after authorities discovered that he had been registered to vote while a noncitizen. Leaf has attributed that registration to Michigan’s Customer and Automotive Records System, or CARS, and has raised broader allegations about the interaction between CARS and the Qualified Voter File.

That distinction matters. Michigan’s Department of State says its computerized driver’s-license and state-ID system does not permit a person to be registered to vote when that person provides documentation establishing noncitizen status. The state says employees cannot override that restriction and that additional checks are conducted to identify accidental registrations. Michigan law also restricts voting and voter registration to U.S. citizens. (Michigan.gov)

On August 28, Michigan announced the results of an Office of the Auditor General review and said CARS citizenship information cannot, by itself, reliably establish whether someone is currently eligible to vote. A person may have entered CARS as a noncitizen and subsequently become a naturalized citizen without the CARS record immediately reflecting that change. According to the state, approximately 14,000 to 16,000 people naturalize in Michigan annually, meaning an old CARS designation can produce false positives if treated as definitive evidence of present citizenship status. (Michigan.gov)

The possibility of false positives does not resolve the larger concern. If CARS is capable of causing changes to Michigan’s Qualified Voter File without citizenship eligibility being independently verified at the point that change occurs that represents an unacceptable vulnerability in election infrastructure. Even though there may be false positives, it is unacceptable that the CARS database can modify Michigan’s Qualified Voter File without checking for citizenship status. This is an example of an engineered loophole in what can be considered critical infrastructure. It is loopholes such as this that make our election systems corruptible.

The appropriate response to a potential vulnerability of this magnitude is not to dismiss questionable records because some may ultimately prove legitimate, but to close the vulnerability, establish reliable citizenship-verification safeguards, and make the process sufficiently transparent that both election officials and the public can verify that only eligible citizens are being added to the voter rolls.

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From One Man Checking His Record to 1,500 Volunteers

What began with Phani obtaining Michigan’s voter file has developed into a citizen-led project that is now operating in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Rhode Island, with more than 1,500 volunteers. The scale has changed dramatically, but Phani sees the mission as fundamentally unchanged. Citizens should be able to examine voter-roll information and identify records that deserve closer review.

CheckMyVote’s approach uses official voter files obtained through public-record processes or public downloads and organizes the information so citizens can examine registrations associated with addresses and identify potential anomalies, including duplicate records, deceased-voter records, unusual registration concentrations, missing apartment or unit information, and changes associated with an address. Potential anomalies are not, by themselves, proof of illegal voting. They are data points that can be researched and, when warranted, submitted to election officials through established legal procedures.

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That work has increasingly attracted public attention. A recent Gateway Pundit report credited CheckMyVote’s analysis with identifying 4,744 duplicate registrations in Michigan as of August 1, 2026 and highlighted Hastings Township Clerk David Olson’s willingness to examine reports submitted by CheckMyVote volunteers.

Hastings, which previously had several duplicate records flagged by CheckMyVote, currently showed zero in the organization’s analysis. Those numbers represent CheckMyVote’s classification of potential duplicate registrations, rather than a finding that 4,744 people voted twice or committed fraud. (The Gateway Pundit)

Automatic Does Not Mean Beyond Verification

Michigan’s automatic voter-registration system was implemented following the 2018 constitutional amendment approved by Michigan voters. The Department of State says only eligible U.S. citizens qualify for automatic voter registration and, beginning June 1, 2026, eligible residents automatically registered or preregistered through qualifying Secretary of State transactions receive mailed instructions explaining how they may opt out. (Michigan.gov)

Phani’s concern is not that every automatic registration is improper, nor that every anomaly proves misconduct. His concern is more fundamental: no system involving millions of records should be considered beyond independent verification simply because the process is automated. Databases contain outdated information. People move. People die. Names change. Duplicate records can occur. Immigration and citizenship status can change, as Phani’s own life demonstrates. The answer to those realities is a system in which discrepancies can be identified, examined, explained, and corrected.

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Restoring Confidence Through Transparency

Nearly six years ago, Phani was not yet an American citizen. He simply wanted to make certain Michigan’s voter records understood that fact. Today, as a naturalized American citizen, he leads an organization with more than 1,500 volunteers across five states that are asking versions of the same question about the public records in their own communities.

Visit CheckMyVote.org to explore the voter-roll tools, learn more about the project, or get involved with its citizen-led work.

For several years, CheckMyVote volunteers have been doing something remarkably straightforward: examining publicly available voter-registration data, identifying records that appear to warrant review, and sending those findings directly to local clerks across Michigan. The work is methodical, often tedious, and rarely glamorous. But every so often, a local official demonstrates exactly why this kind of citizen participation can matter.

Hastings Charter Township Clerk David Olson is one of those officials.

CheckMyVote founder Phani Mantravadi recently highlighted Olson after the clerk publicly asked federal officials for assistance verifying citizenship within his township’s voter rolls. Olson’s request follows allegations from Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf that a confidential informant inside the Michigan Secretary of State’s office raised concerns about how Michigan’s Customer and Automotive Records System, or CARS, interacts with automatic voter registration. Those allegations have now been referred for federal attention, but they have not yet been independently established as fact by Michigan officials or a court.

What makes Olson particularly noteworthy to CheckMyVote, however, is that our experience with his office began well before the current controversy.

Phani: This Is What Diligence and Public Service Look Like

Phani explained why Olson’s response stood out:

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For those following election administration in Michigan, another significant development has emerged involving attorney Kevin Kijewski and Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office has officially concluded its review of an incident involving Bishop and her husband, finding “no criminal conduct occurred.” The state also confirmed that there was no attempt to access Michigan’s Qualified Voter File and that investigators found no evidence that sensitive county files were accessed.

For CheckMyVote, this outcome is important because of what the official findings ultimately established after months of controversy surrounding Bishop. Serious questions were raised, the Michigan State Police referred the matter to the Attorney General, and Bishop faced significant public scrutiny. Now the state’s own investigation has concluded without a finding of criminal wrongdoing.

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What the Investigation Actually Found

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On Monday, August 24, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers is scheduled to consider whether the petition signatures submitted for the proposed constitutional amendment satisfy the requirements necessary for the proposal to appear before Michigan voters.

Americans for Citizen Voting–Michigan submitted more than 709,800 petition signatures, substantially more than the 446,198 signatures required. Michigan News Source reported, however, that after the Bureau of Elections evaluated a 1,000-signature sample, it estimated approximately 434,423 signatures would qualify, leaving the proposal roughly 12,000 signatures below the threshold. The Board of State Canvassers will ultimately consider the matter.

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For CheckMyVote, the larger issue extends beyond a single petition or election. Our work is centered on the accuracy of voter-registration records and giving citizens tools to examine publicly available voter-file information. Accurate records matter because voter rolls form part of the foundation upon which elections are administered.

The proposed Michigan amendment would establish additional citizenship-verification requirements, create a process for addressing registrations where citizenship cannot be confirmed, modify Michigan’s identification requirements, and provide access to citizenship documentation for qualifying low-income residents.

The signature-review controversy also illustrates why election data and transparent procedures matter. More than 700,000 signatures were physically submitted, while the Bureau’s estimate of validity is based on its review of a sample. Understanding how those samples are selected, reviewed, challenged, and ultimately certified is an important part of understanding how Michigan’s initiative process operates.

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A National Petition on Voter-Roll Verification

CheckMyVote is working with Fight Voter Fraud to bring attention to a separate national petition concerning voter-roll verification.

The petition asks Secretaries of State across the country, along with the officials responsible for elections in Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah, to verify voter-roll citizenship information using available federal resources, including the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system.

Fight Voter Fraud describes its request simply: states should examine their voter rolls, verify their accuracy, and report what they find. The organization points to North Carolina’s use of federal citizenship-verification resources as a model it believes other states should consider.

Readers who want to review the petition themselves and add their names can access it here:

Read the National Voter Roll Petition

Fight Voter Fraud also says people interested in obtaining physical copies or helping collect signatures can contact the organization directly.

Fight Voter Fraud

Michigan Board of State Canvassers Meets August 24

Phani Mantravadi is encouraging Michiganders from across the political spectrum who care about transparent and accurately administered elections to attend Monday’s meeting and hear the proceedings firsthand:

“This should not be about party lines. People who care about election integrity and fair elections need to show up in numbers. The Michigan Board of State Canvassers meeting is in Lansing at 10:00 a.m., and citizens will have an opportunity to share their comments publicly. The meeting will be held at the Binsfeld Office Building, Room 1100, 201 Townsend Street, Lansing, Michigan 48933. Public comment comes at the end of the meeting.

It is also important for people to read the Fight Voter Fraud national petition concerning voter-roll verification and, if they agree with what it asks, add their names. Citizen participation and accurate voter rolls should matter regardless of political affiliation.”

Readers who want to review the petition and decide whether to sign can do so here:

Read the Fight Voter Fraud National Petition

Michigan Board of State Canvassers Meeting: Monday, August 24 at 10:00 a.m., Binsfeld Office Building, Room 1100, 201 Townsend Street, Lansing, MI 48933. Public comment is scheduled for the end of the meeting.

Accurate Records Are the Foundation

Regardless of where someone stands on a particular proposed amendment, CheckMyVote’s underlying work remains focused on voter-roll accuracy and transparency. Our volunteers examine publicly available voter-registration information, identify records that may be inaccurate or outdated, compare available datasets, and work through lawful procedures to bring potential discrepancies to the attention of election officials.

Citizen involvement begins with information. That means understanding what is contained in voter files, understanding how records are maintained, understanding how election rules operate, and knowing how citizens can participate in the governmental processes surrounding those rules.

The national petition is one of the current efforts addressing those questions.

Review the petition here

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Stay Involved With CheckMyVote

Visit CheckMyVote.org to learn more about voter-roll transparency and the citizen-led work being done with publicly available voter-registration data. You can also sign up for V-ALERTS and subscribe for continuing updates about voter-roll accuracy, election records, and election administration.

For years, CheckMyVote has argued that election transparency depends on something very basic: the records necessary to understand and examine an election must remain available. Citizens cannot meaningfully evaluate election administration if important underlying records are unavailable, incomplete, or destroyed before legitimate questions can be examined.

That principle is now at the center of a significant Michigan lawsuit. Attorney Kevin Kijewski filed suit on behalf of Bridgewater Township Clerk Michelle McQueer challenging a Michigan rule that, according to the complaint, requires clerks to delete electronic poll book software and associated files within seven days after an election is certified. Kijewski argues that the requirement potentially conflicts with federal election-record preservation law, which requires covered records relating to voting in federal elections to be retained for 22 months.

Before we could even publish our original article about the lawsuit, there was an important development: the Michigan Court of Claims ordered the electronic poll book software and associated files at issue to be preserved while the case proceeds.

Transparency Requires Records

CheckMyVote founder Phani Mantravadi has been outspoken about what he sees as a broader problem with election administration under Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. In response to the lawsuit, he praised Kijewski for putting the issue before a court with detailed factual and legal arguments.

“Jocelyn Benson has time and again violated election laws by making up her own rules as she pleases. It is to be noted that she has exhibited a pattern of circumventing the MI Legislature when it comes to making up rules that hinder transparency while allowing systemic election corruption to continue, including allowing non-citizens to vote in our elections.”

Phani continued:

“Constitutional attorneys like Kevin Kijewski provide much hope for Michigan. He lays out the case in a professional way with facts and exhibits. Bravo Kevin Kijewski. I pray justice prevails on this case.”

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The “Pick a Crime” Dilemma

Kijewski has described the position facing his client with three words: “PICK A CRIME.” According to his account, the state rule directs McQueer to delete electronic poll book records from the August 4 primary within seven days of certification, while federal law requires certain election records relating to federal elections to be retained for 22 months.

The lawsuit cites 52 U.S.C. § 20701, which generally requires election officers to preserve covered records relating to acts requisite to voting in federal elections for 22 months. A companion provision, § 20702, provides criminal penalties for willfully destroying, concealing, mutilating, or altering records required to be retained. The central question for the court is whether the particular electronic poll book files covered by Michigan’s rule fall within those federal preservation requirements.

According to Kijewski, McQueer attempted to resolve the issue before going to court. She wrote Secretary Benson and Michigan’s Director of Elections on July 6 asking how she was supposed to comply with the potentially conflicting requirements. Kijewski says she waited 37 days without receiving an answer before the lawsuit was filed.

Why These Electronic Records Matter

Electronic poll book files contain information that may not be completely reproduced elsewhere, including activity logs, timestamps, ballot transactions, and operator actions. Deleting the underlying files results in permanent loss of information that is critical to election officials, courts, attorneys, journalists, researchers, or citizens attempting to understand how an election was administered.

This goes directly to the work we do at CheckMyVote. Our volunteers examine publicly available voter information, compare records, identify potentially inaccurate or outdated registrations, document discrepancies, and work through lawful processes to bring those findings to election officials. That work has taught us that preserving information is fundamentally different from alleging wrongdoing. Keeping records does not prove that something improper happened. It simply preserves the ability to determine what happened.

Investigative reporter Patty McMurray has also helped bring substantial public attention to the case and the arguments advanced by McQueer and Kijewski. Her reporting is important because technical election-administration policies can have significant consequences while receiving relatively little public scrutiny.

Read Patty McMurray’s report on the case

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The Court Steps In

The case moved remarkably quickly. According to Kijewski, the complaint was filed Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday morning, the Michigan Court of Claims had ordered the disputed records preserved.

Kijewski reported that the court directed defendants to preserve “the electronic pollbook software and associated files” securely while the matter remains pending. He summarized the practical effect simply: “Nothing gets deleted while a judge decides which law controls.”

The preservation order does not by itself resolve the ultimate merits of the lawsuit or establish that Michigan’s rule is unlawful. What it does accomplish is critically important: the records will remain available while the court determines the legal questions before it. The court has also placed the case on an expedited schedule, with the state’s response due August 20 because, in the court’s words as quoted by Kijewski, the deletion date “is fast approaching.”

Transparency Requires Preservation

This dispute reaches beyond the August primary because Kijewski says the same deletion rule would apply to the November election. Michigan’s clerks deserve clarity about what electronic records must be preserved before another major election occurs, and citizens deserve confidence that records necessary for legitimate examination will remain available.

For CheckMyVote, the principle is simple. We cannot analyze what no longer exists, and we cannot independently examine records that have already been destroyed.

That is why we consider the court’s preservation order an important victory for transparency. The underlying case will continue, the state will have an opportunity to respond, and the court will ultimately determine which legal requirements control. In the meantime, however, the records exist, and the records will remain preserved.

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Get Involved With CheckMyVote

Visit CheckMyVote.org to check your address and learn more about our citizen-led work examining publicly available voter information. Sign up for V-ALERTS to monitor activity associated with voter records at your residence, subscribe to the CheckMyVote newsletter for continuing election-integrity and voter-roll updates, and learn how you can help bring CheckMyVote’s voter-roll transparency tools to your state.

A months-long citizen review of Detroit’s 2020 absentee ballot records reports a substantial discrepancy between the number of absentee ballots officially counted and the envelopes produced through public-record requests. CheckMyVote helped turn nearly a million election documents into searchable, voter-linked data.

More than five years after the 2020 election, a citizen-led examination of Detroit absentee voting records is raising new questions about the documentation underlying tens of thousands of absentee ballots.

The investigation, reported by Patty McMurray of The Gateway Pundit, involved records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and subsequent litigation by researcher Yehuda Miller. Nearly one million pages of election materials were ultimately obtained, including absentee ballot applications, envelopes, poll books and other records. CheckMyVote founder Phani Mantravadi then helped organize and upload those materials so that more than 100 volunteers could systematically examine them.

Detroit’s official reconciliation information reported 174,384 absentee ballots, while the citizen investigation says only 155,487 absentee ballot envelopes were produced through the records process. After months of data entry, matching and repeated reviews, the investigators say their analysis identified 26,901 reported absentee ballots for which they could not match a legally required accompanying envelope in the records they reviewed.

How the CheckMyVote Review Was Conducted

The project began its detailed absentee-envelope review in December 2025 and

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Investigative journalist James O’Keefe has brought renewed national attention to Michigan’s voter registration system with an undercover investigation involving individuals whom O’Keefe Media Group exposed are non-U.S. citizens and registered voters in Michigan.

As our founder Phani Mantravadi emphasized after seeing the coverage, a huge debt of gratitude is owed to James O’Keefe and his team for taking information that had been developed through months of research and pursuing it further through investigative journalism.

At the same time, this story demonstrates what can happen when researchers, journalists, citizen volunteers, public agencies, and publicly available voter information intersect. There are several people and organizations whose work contributed to the chain of research that ultimately preceded O’Keefe’s investigation, and we believe each deserves recognition.

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Recently, CheckMyVote founder Phani shared a brief story from a visit to a voting center that quickly resonated with many people involved in election administration and election integrity discussions. Rather than making a speech or delivering a presentation, he used three everyday items to illustrate a point that has become part of a broader national conversation about voter registration and election verification.

According to Phani, he placed his U.S. passport on the table and said, “Proof of citizenship.”

He then placed his driver’s license beside it and said, “Proof of address.”

Finally, pointing to himself, he added, “Proof of life.”

He recalled that the poll workers appreciated the simplicity of the demonstration, and the exchange led to a friendly conversation about voter verification and the various ways states seek to maintain accurate voter registration records.

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Three Documents, Three Different Purposes

Although the interaction lasted only a few moments, it touched on three separate concepts that are frequently discussed in election administration.

Proof of citizenship relates to whether an individual meets the legal qualifications to register to vote. Proof of address helps determine the correct jurisdiction, precinct, and ballot style assigned to a voter. Proof of life, while not a legal election term, was Phani’s way of emphasizing that voter registration records should correspond to real, current individuals.

His demonstration was not presented as an official election procedure. Rather, it was a simple illustration intended to highlight the different categories of information that are often discussed when people talk about voter registration systems and election administration.

A Conversation Happening Across the Country

Phani’s story has been shared by a number of election integrity-focused accounts on social media, where many commenters viewed it as an easy-to-understand illustration of broader discussions surrounding voter registration verification.

Among those who commented publicly was True the Vote, which wrote:

“Citizenship. Address. Proof of life.

Three things every voter roll is supposed to confirm — and he confirmed all three himself, in under a minute, without being asked.

If a voter can do it that easily, so can a state.”

The anecdote has become part of a wider online conversation about election administration, voter registration procedures, and the methods states use to verify eligibility.

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Why CheckMyVote Pays Attention

At CheckMyVote, our work centers on voter roll transparency through the analysis of publicly available voter registration data. Our volunteers review records, identify information that may warrant further review, and provide data-driven findings to election officials through established legal processes.

Maintaining accurate voter registration records is an ongoing administrative responsibility. People move, change names, become newly eligible to vote, or otherwise update their records over time. Careful review of voter registration data can help identify records that may require verification or correction, contributing to the overall accuracy of voter rolls.

Stories like the one Phani shared remind us that public conversations about elections often begin with straightforward questions about how voter registration systems work and how they are maintained. Whether those conversations take place at a polling location, in a legislative hearing, or around a kitchen table, they reflect continued public interest in understanding the election process.

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Stay Informed

At CheckMyVote, we remain committed to helping citizens better understand voter registration records, election administration, and the importance of accurate public data.

If you’re interested in learning more about voter roll transparency, exploring publicly available voter data, or following developments related to election administration, subscribe to our newsletter for future updates.

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The CheckMyVote Address Monitoring Alert System allows you to track voter registration activity tied to your address using official state voter roll data. Most Americans have no visibility into who is registered at their home, when changes occur, or whether voter records are accurate.

Check My Vote

Election administration depends on public confidence, and public confidence depends on accurate voter registration records. Voters expect that registration systems will function as intended and that eligibility requirements will be applied consistently. When “errors” occur within those systems, they naturally raise questions about oversight, quality control, and the safeguards designed to protect the integrity of the registration process.

That is why New Jersey’s recent announcement regarding its automatic voter registration system has attracted national attention. The issue has generated discussion not only because of the number of registrations involved, but also because it exposes the challenges of managing large statewide voter databases that interact with multiple government agencies and technology vendors. While investigations continue, the incident serves as an example of why election administration requires continual review, transparency, and accountability.

What State Officials Say Happened

On July 21, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced that state officials had identified what the administration described as a serious error involving the Motor Vehicle Commission’s automatic voter registration process. According to the Governor’s office, approximately 6,600 individuals who indicated they were not United States citizens while applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards were added to New Jersey’s voter registration rolls between June 2023 and June 2024. Governor Sherrill explained that she became aware of the matter only recently following a review of the system.

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The Vendor Disputes the Explanation

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