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Officials: Audit Finds 31 Michigan Voters Voted Twice In Presidential Election

LANSING (WWJ) - In a statewide review, Michigan officials say they've discovered 31 people who "appear to" have voted twice in the November presidential election — once by absentee ballot and again in person on Election Day.

Those cases will be referred to the Michigan Attorney General's Office for criminal investigation.

"It's a very small number, statewide," State Bureau of Elections Director Chris Thomas told lawmakers in Lansing on Thursday. "It didn't swing any statewide election, but we do have recommendations in there on how to stop that, absolutely."

The review, which was launched in November, is ongoing and more individuals may be referred.

[More on the statewide audit here].

Meantime, state elections officials say they found no evidence of voter fraud in a separate audit of 136 precincts in Detroit that could not be recounted after Nov. 8.

Thomas explained that human error, not illegal activities, were to blame for the mismatch in the number of ballots cast and the recorded votes.

"We haven't found any pervasive fraud," he said. "We found performance issues, and so we will document those."

[Get details from on Detroit audit here].

Thomas said they will be working closely with city officials to better train precinct workers beginning with the Aug. 8 Primary.

"We do another of training schools in person, we have not gone totally to the internet, so in election years we'll do eight to ten regional sessions for counties and larger jurisdictions who train precinct inspectors," he said. "So this is train the trainer; try to get everybody on the same page."

Thomas said, however, that the statewide recount (which was eventually halted by a federal judge) went smoother than expected.

"I mean, the idea of doing a statewide recount in eight days...I would have like sent off as sort of a bizarre fantasy, in terms of the ability to get that done," Thomas said. "But I'm here to report that we would have gotten that done."

These audits in Michigan come after President Donald Trump has said repeatedly that millions of votes were cast illegally, without providing any evidence to support that claim. While a number of studies have already found no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Trump has said he will call for a federal investigation.

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