Tim Vetter (L), Phani Mantravadi (R) teamed up with other volunteers to create Check My Vote (CMV). Using publicly available data, they created a user-friendly system to shines the light of transparency on the QVF and ineligible voter registrations.
By Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub | December 6, 2023
Heroes come in many flavors. Soldiers wear uniforms and carry weapons. Songwriters pluck at listeners’ heartstrings to drive their points home. Tim Vetter co-founded Check My Vote to put the state’s voter rolls into the hands of the public because he considers the voter rolls a national security issue, and “every citizen should be concerned.
Our state’s voter rolls, called the Qualified Voter File or QVF, “are far from clean or credible, as MFE has uncovered and routinely reported,” Vetter explained to Michigan Fair Elections.
Realizing that corrupted rolls open the door to voter fraud, Vetter and co-founder Phani Mantravadi teamed up with other volunteers to create Check My Vote (CMV). They used publicly available data to create a user-friendly system that shines the light of transparency on the QVF and ineligible voter registrations.
"Our goal is simple,” Vetter said. “We are helping to clean Michigan’s QVF and keep it clean.” Check My Vote-Michigan offers free basic services essential for QVF cleanup. These services enable regular citizens and clerks to identify potential issues. Add-on premiere services will be available for a small fee soon. “Armed with this information, everyone from ordinary citizens to expert clerks can help clean the QVF and keep it clean,” Vetter said with his characteristic smile.
Vetter sees voting as a sacred duty, and fair elections as the heartbeat of the republic. Making CMV publicly available and easy to use was his duty to his state and nation, he said. “Every eligible voter has a right to cast one ballot and to have it counted in each election.”
Vetter, an automotive equipment process engineer, said, “Phani and I work as a team.” Mantravadi, a full-stack I.T. developer, brings unique technological skillsets to the company. “We complement each other,” Vetter said.
On November 9, singer/songwriter John Rich released “The Man,” a thought-provoking song and video tribute to Rich’s grandfather who served in WWII and to all those who sacrificed to keep this nation free. “Freedom is not inherited,” Rich sang. But for the service of his grandfather and others in the Greatest Generation, he would be “speaking German or living under the flag of Japan.”
John Rich writes and sings. Vetter analyzes the QVF and provides access on a website. “We’re just kicking out the facts,” Vetter told this writer.
Fruits of his labor
Across Michigan, hearty volunteers in an MFE program called Soles to Rolls, are receiving training. They pore over the QVF for individual precincts, and digital researchers analyze the information and compile walk lists. On foot and from phone banks canvassers interview residents in their local neighborhoods. Some take photos. Others enter the data. Meetings with clerks are arranged, and results are shared with empathy and respect. MFE and CMV post the findings to a website for all to examine the statistics.
Revelations, as published in CheckMyVote's Clobber Report are eye-opening. Examples, include:
In Michigan, 126,186 houses have five or more voters registered in them, a puzzling statistic considering the U.S. Census reports the average number of people in a Michigan residential home is 2.45 people.
A single home in Pontiac had 61 voters registered as of December.
One residential home in Benton Harbor had 19 registered voters as of January of 2023. That same house had 33 registered voters in August; 43 in October, 47 in November, and 53 in December. Just one house increased the number of registered voters by 34 from January to December.
A single-family home in Flint was recorded as harboring 50 registered voters as of December
A one-bedroom home in Kalamazoo had 22 registered voters in October and 27 in November 2023.
Washtenaw County ranks top of the list with the highest number of voter registrations per single address. The number of homes in Ann Arbor that had 5 or more voters registered at that same address increased from 2 to 213 in 2023.
One house in Ann Arbor, (right) separated into two apartments, had 27 registered voters.
In one 22-unit apartment complex, 13 voter registrations do not list an apartment number.
Without apartment numbers, the U.S.
Postal Service cannot deliver mail, like ballots, to the registered voter. State law requires a mail-deliverable address and extension.
A variety of opportunities exist for readers to step forward and help clean the QVF. Individuals can help ensure that every person entitled to vote registers and votes, that every person entitled to vote is able to vote one, and only one, ballot is vital for protecting this republic and preserving true freedom.
As Rich croons in “The Man,” “It’s our turn to be the strong shoulders for future Americans.”
Sign up today. Put your shoulder with Tim Vetter’s. Volunteer to be strong shoulders in MFE.
Don't miss MFE's weekly Zoom@Noon this Thursday, Dec. 7.
We are grateful for your support and look forward to seeing you Thursday at 12:00 PM.
Agenda below
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Mark your calendar:
Agenda
MFE Coalition Task Force Meeting
Michigan Fair Elections
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, Dec. 7, 2023, via Zoom. Link:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Patrice Johnson, Chair, Mich. Fair Elections
Jeff Schaeper
--National working groups and other matters
Tim Vetter
--Announcing: New enhancements and findings. Clobber Report and Check My Vote
Janine Iyer
--Soles to Rolls webinar training
--Wednesday’s phone bank training
Adam Rebrandt, Michigan Director, Citizens Defending Freedom
-- Outreach to churches and people of faith.
Counties report
Erick Kaardal
--Breaking News: Suing the government to improve it
New business:
Next Task Force Coalition Meeting: Thurs., Dec. 14, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM meeting. Recurring weekly link. Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system: Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZEucOqopz8sGdNYKcvyh8hDELFWbG9eNdwz/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGtrTwpGt2RthqARpwMA4_Cb_TxmCldjadzpTTmFTlbOgvSE85kBbBYSd3-
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Michigan Fair Elections. Artificial intelligence may have been used in the creation of this message or in the links referenced herein.