In the closely watched battleground state of Michigan, election officials are under scrutiny, with isolated errors or missteps serving as fodder for election deniers to lay the groundwork for widespread doubt about the election results. elections.

Several incidents this week — ranging from an isolated case of illegal voting to human errors by the secretary of state’s office that have since been corrected — have shown how conspiracy theorists have been relentless in their attempts to suggest that something much more sinister is afoot.

“For those of us who run elections, it’s a stressful time anyway and we’re really concerned about this situation and these kinds of stories getting out of hand,” said Lawrence Kestenbaum, the county’s Democratic clerk. of Washtenaw. “Psychologically, seeing people challenge the process, etc., is stressful. »

Despite significant transparency efforts and attempts to quickly correct the facts for the Michigan public, incidents have already been amplified online to suggest systemic cheating and fraud in the election, making it difficult to recast misleading claims initials.

“Canary in the Coal Mine”

Although Michigan got off to a smooth and strong start to its statewide in-person early voting this week, the state also faced several incidents that speak to how easily small cases can be amplified on social media to suggest otherwise.

As of Wednesday morning, confusion over the number of ballots cast in the state was caused by a formatting error that has since been corrected, with no additional votes being counted, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.

Part of the confusion seems to come from a job on X by Matthew DePerno, one of Michigan’s most prominent election deniers. A former Republican Party nominee for Michigan attorney general, DePerno was charge last year as part of efforts in 2020 to illegally access and tamper with voting machines in hopes of proving the election was stolen from Donald Trump. DePerno has pleaded not guilty in the voting machine case.

DePerno’s post, which has been viewed more than six million times, says his review of Michigan’s Qualified Voter File — a voter database that tracks ballots — showed that a voter ID had recorded a vote dozens of times at different addresses. DePerno added that the spreadsheet data showed more than 160,000 excess ballots.

The Michigan Secretary of State’s office attributed the confusion to a “formatting error” in the spreadsheet that it said was corrected and which inadvertently appeared to show the same vote assigned to old addresses associated with an individual.

“Each of these voters cast only one vote for this election. This error in the data export process has been corrected and these additional erroneous lines no longer appear on the report,” the statement said.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump also attempted to clarify the allegations in a statement. job on X, saying “this was a glitch in the system – these duplicates were not and WILL NOT BE COUNTED.” His acknowledgment that it was a problem and not widespread fraud bolstered the explanations of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat.

Asked about the clarification from Trump and the secretary of state’s office, DePerno told CNN: “If you think this is an export issue, then you’re a fool.” »

DePerno’s doubling down despite the explanation and correction underscores the difficulty of assuaging doubts sown by those who spread the allegations on social media to allege wrongdoing.

“The explanation is much less far-reaching than the original claim…when you compare the reach of government officials, it’s impossible for the news to catch up with the viral claims,” said Ben Decker, the group’s CEO. threat intelligence service Memetica. “These are sort of the canary in the coal mine of post-election disinformation narratives. »

Far-right conspiracy site The Gateway Pundit also appeared to reject the official explanation and called the incident an “election scandal” in a headline Thursday morning.

“Bless Lara’s heart, but this is not acceptable and probably inaccurate,” The Gateway Pundit wrote in response to her assurance that the issue had been resolved.

Rare case of non-citizen voting

Just as DePerno’s claims were making the rounds on social media, authorities announced that Michigan prosecutors had charged a Chinese citizen with voter fraud and perjury after he allegedly voted in the 2024 election.

Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that the 19-year-old Chinese man who allegedly voted was a student living in Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan. Authorities said the man was not a U.S. citizen and therefore could not vote in federal elections.

Experts say Illegal non-citizen voting is extremely rare, and when it does occur, it is usually detected quickly. The announcement by Michigan’s secretary of state and attorney general, both Democrats, as well as local prosecutors in Ann Arbor, underscored the isolated nature of the case.

“Investigations in several states and nationally have found no evidence of large numbers of noncitizens registering to vote. It is even less common for a non-citizen to vote. When this happens, we take it extremely seriously,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit said in a statement.

It appears that the student’s vote cannot be undone after the fact and will be counted, since ballots cannot be retrieved once passed through the tabulator. Unlike mail-in voting, ballots cast at in-person polling locations contain no identifying information about the individual voter, making it impossible to determine which one belonged to the student, the clerk told CNN of Kestenbaum County.

Experts said this was intended to maintain the secrecy of the vote and was standard election procedure. The matter is still under investigation and it is unclear which candidates the student voted for.

“An in-person ballot is placed in a tabulator or ballot box, mixed with other ballots. It’s about preserving secrecy, so you can’t go into the ballot later and confirm who a particular pastor voted for,” said David Becker, former Justice Department voting rights official and founder from the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research.

Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the incident could be an accident or part of an intentional foreign plot to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections. The Chinese man – a University of Michigan student – ​​voted on Sunday, then contacted local election officials later in the day to try to retrieve the ballot, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Benson returns to the Dominion claim

Also this week, right-wing social media accounts started circulated remarks made by Benson during a press conference Monday in which she claimed there was a “nationwide problem” with some specialized Dominion machines that would make it more difficult for Michigan voters with disabilities to split their ticket and vote for candidates from different parties.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who relentlessly shares potentially misinformation about the election on his account, promoted Benson’s comments in a statement. job on X, asking Dominion “what’s going on” with the machines. The post, which included video of Benson’s remarks, was viewed more than 42 million times.

As conspiracy theories about Dominion’s Voting Assist Terminal (VAT) machines began to spread, the company blasted Benson, accusing him of making “false and misleading” comments about supposed problems with its accessible machines to voters with disabilities.

“The Michigan Department of State has confirmed that there were no issues preventing voters from making their preferred choices and voting on paper,” the Dominion statement said.

The voting technology company said it does not have a machine in any other state that offers straight party-line voting “like the state of Michigan does,” arguing that it is not , in fact, a national problem as Benson had claimed.

Benson later walked back his remarks, saying through a spokesperson that “Dominion explained that the TVA programming error only affects users in Michigan.”

Incidents and issues involving Dominion machines often catch fire on social media – because many pro-Trump figures continue to promote the lie that Dominion machines were involved in rigging the 2020 election in favor of President Joe Biden. A controversial right-wing sheriff from Barry County, Michigan, who also lied about Dominion’s actions in 2020, job on X this week about a “criminal investigation” he is leading into the company.

Despite recent challenges, Michigan election officials say they are confident they are prepared to resist efforts to undermine confidence in the results.

“We’re used to scrutiny — everyone thinks they’re an expert on elections,” Kestenbaum said. “I don’t spend a lot of time on worst-case scenarios…you can imagine things descending into chaos one way or another. I don’t believe that will happen and I believe that the formal, legal, bipartisan process we have will prevail over attempts to disrupt or subvert it.”

CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

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