Claims that dead people voted went viral. These are the facts | Technology


Claims that dead people voted went viral. These are the facts | Technology

Others, like Juan Andres Caro, a White House policy adviser, made their own videos replicating Fletcher’s search.

Grenell retweeted Caro’s video, which has more than a million views on Twitter.

CNN reached out to Fletcher and Caro for comment. Fletcher did not respond and Caro did not comment.

Tracy Wimmer, the director of media relations for Michigan’s Secretary of State, told CNN that, on rare occasions, errors like this can occur with “voters with similar names, where the ballot is accidentally recorded as voted by John Smith Sr when it was actually voted by John Smith Jr.”

She added that ballots for deceased voters are rejected and that “local clerks can correct the issue when it is brought to their attention.”

Later on November 5, the Michigan Secretary of State’s office replied directly to Fletcher’s tweet, calling it “misinformation.” By then the post had been retweeted tens of thousands of times.

Errors and quirks

Clerical errors, database quirks, and genuinely long-living individuals can sometimes explain why it looks like people are casting ballots from beyond the grave.

Occasionally living voters submit ballots with incorrect birth years that make it appear as if they’re actually deceased, according to Wimmer. “In such scenarios, no one ineligible has actually voted,” she said.


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