Michigan declares 2024 election secure; critics call audit 'flawed'

Nearly one year after the election, Michigan just released its 2024 post-election audit report confirming that the election was “secure and accurate.” Not everyone agrees with that conclusion though.

Authored by the Michigan Bureau of Elections, the audit included recounts, ballot audits, and post-election procedural audits.

The bureau said the report “affirms Michigan’s election integrity and accuracy.”

“Careful, detailed, and thorough post-election audits are critical to election security and accuracy,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said. “Hundreds of bipartisan state, county, and local election officials worked tirelessly to review the processes, procedures and results of Michigan’s historic 2024 election.”

The election was historic because, for the third election in a row, there was record-breaking voter turnout. Michigan ranked third nationally for voter turnout in 2024.

Some are already flagging their concerns about the report though, which is constitutionally-mandated.

First off, it took nearly a year after the election to be released. In 2020, that report was published six months after the election.

The Center Square previously reported on a report from Free Speech for People, a national nonprofit legal advocacy group, which examined post-election audits in the seven swing states. It expressed concern about the delay in Michigan’s audits.

“Although Michigan election officials have publicly touted their post-election audits as providing proof of soundness of the election outcomes, the actual audit procedures do not support such claims,” the report said. Michigan’s post-election audits are conducted well after certification and only published months later.”

That report also raised questions about previous audits conducted by the state. It found that the “risk-limiting” audit performed after the 2020 election was later deemed merely an “exercise” because not all jurisdictions participated, leading to incomplete data.

Following the release of the 2024 post-election audit, Michigan Fair Elections Institute raised similar concerns.

While the audit allegedly reviewed “a random sample of ballots drawn statewide” in 378 precincts, the institute pointed out that no ballots from Detroit (Wayne County) or Troy (Oakland County) were represented in the audit. This raised red flags for the institute, which labeled the state’s audit “flawed.”

“An audit should be more than statistically valid, it needs to identify known trouble spots in the state and address them,” said Patrice Johnson, chair and founder of Michigan Fair Elections Institute. “The situation also points to the importance of careful, human involvement in the process, using human eyes to review the software output for anomalies. Did someone really think it would be okay to skip over the city of Detroit?”

Despite all this, the vast majority of Michigan voters remained confident in the state’s elections throughout the 2024 election cycle, as previously reported by The Center Square.

Yet, Johnson said, this confidence is misguided.

“These risk-limiting audits are flawed and give voters false assurance,” she said.

The state disagrees.

“All audit results found Michigan’s election system was effective, secure, and accurately tabulated the results of the 2024 General Election,” it said. “The audits also show that clerks performed their duties well and voting machines accurately counted over 5.7 million ballots cast by Michiganders.”