Michigan recently announced plans to remove over 318,000 inactive voter registrations in April.
That will bring the total number of out-of-date registrations removed since 2018 to more than 1.1 million.
“This is a milestone for Michigan’s secure and accessible election system,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “State and local election officials are constantly working to maintain our voter rolls transparently, accurately, and in accordance with state and federal law.”
There is an extensive process in place for a voter registration to be deemed inactive and then actually removed from the voter rolls.
Election officials must first receive reliable information, often from a national database of voters, that a registered voter is no longer eligible to vote in Michigan. Federal law then requires the voter receive notice and remain on the voter rolls for four years before they can be removed.
This helps protect the voters, said the Department of State.
“In many cases, voters with inactive registrations are still eligible but have chosen not to vote in recent elections,” it said in a statement. “In the 2024 General Election, more than 71,000 formerly inactive voters returned to legally cast their vote. This underscores the importance of the notice and waiting period before cancelling registrations belonging to voters who might have moved but who might still be Michigan residents.”
Currently, of Michigan’s 7.3 million active voter registrations, approximately 577,000 are inactive and are “slated for cancellation.” An additional 600,000 are inactive, with the state believing they may have moved or died. That means that 1.2 million voter registrations in the state are currently listed as inactive.
Inflated voter rolls have long been a problem for Michigan, with the state having 500,000 more registered voters in 2022 than eligible voters.
With recent purges of the voter rolls, that is less of a problem, as 7.9 million eligible citizens of a voting age are currently residing in Michigan.
According to data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the state currently ranks fifth in the nation for being one of the most active in removing registrations of voters who have died.
“Our diligent efforts to keep our voter file up to date have helped us identify and take action to legally remove over 1.1 million out-of-date registrations from the rolls, while ensuring that eligible voters retain their rights under the law,” Benson said.
