Michigan officials say Trump campaign claim of ‘dead’ voter is false

A lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign attempting to stop Michigan from certifying its final vote count included a false claim that a dead person cast a ballot, according to state election officials.

The complaint, which was filed Tuesday and targets the Democratic stronghold of Wayne County and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), contains affidavits that allege irregularities in the tabulation of votes. 

One of those affidavits is from a woman named Anita Chase, who claimed she reviewed state records showing her deceased son had cast ballots in 2016 and 2020.

However, a spokesperson for Benson’s office said the affidavit appears to reflect a case of mistaken identity.

Tracy Wimmer told Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit news outlet in the state, that the confusion stems from several Michiganders having “common names.”

The voter registration for Mark D. Chase, who was listed as living at the same address as his mother, was cancelled in 2016. According to state records, he last voted in 2014 and was born in 1978. 

Those records appear to reflect the obituary available online for Mark Chase, who died in July 2016, according to the outlet.

There are currently two other people named Mark D. Chase who are listed on Michigan’s Qualified Voter File, according to Wimmer.

Both were born in different years than Anita Chase’s son and live in different parts of the state, Wimmer added. There is a Mark D. Chase in Ottawa County who is an active voter, and a Mark D. Chase in Barry County who has no recent voting history, he said.

Anita Chase wrote in her affidavit that her son would be 42 years old if he were still alive today. According to Bridge Michigan, there is no listing in a recent copy of the Qualified Voter File for a Mark D. Chase born in 1978.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Trump’s campaign and his supporters have made sweeping and unsubstantiated claims that Democrats want to count ballots from deceased voters in Michigan.

Bridge Michigan tracked down several Michigan voters who are very much alive and clarified how many of the accusations have been triggered by isolated data or technical errors.

The lawsuit is the second legal challenge filed in Michigan from the president’s legal team. The campaign had previously filed a similar lawsuit in Michigan claims court, where a judge rejected its request.

Observers claim in the affidavits that they were unable to get close enough to watch votes being tabulated and claim Republican observers were improperly harassed.

The lawsuit has little chance of swaying the outcome in a state where President-elect Joe Biden beat Trump by roughly 145,000 votes.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) on Wednesday accused Trump and his campaign of lacking faith in Black voters in their lawsuits against the state questioning the legitimacy of the election results. 

“Really the themes that we see, that persist, are this: Black people are corrupt, Black people are incompetent and Black people can’t be trusted. That’s the narrative that is continually espoused by the Trump campaign and their allies in these lawsuits,” Nessel said during a call with reporters, according to the Detroit Free Press

The Trump campaign has also filed legal challenges in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan since Election Day, and it has said it will pursue a recount in Wisconsin.