Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has announced felony charges against four St. Clair Shores residents and three assistant clerks accused of orchestrating a double-voting scheme in the 2024 primary election.
On Oct. 4, Nessel’s office announced that it had formally charged the four residents of voting twice in the August primary election, while accusing the three assistant clerks of falsifying voter records to cover up the double voting by marking absentee ballots as rejected instead of received.
The four residents—Frank Prezzato, Stacy Kramer, Douglas Kempkins Jr., and Geneva O’Day—allegedly cast both absentee and in-person votes. Each faces one count of voting as an absentee and in person, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, along with one count of offering to vote more than once, which carries a four-year penalty.
Meanwhile, assistant clerks Patricia Guciardo, Emily McClintock, and Molly Brasure are charged with multiple felonies for their roles in allegedly enabling the double voting. Both Guciardo and McClintock face one count of falsifying election returns or records, one count of voting as an absentee and in person, and one count of offering to vote more than once. Brasure faces two counts of each charge.
In a statement accompanying the charges, Nessel said that while double voting is rare in Michigan, the severity of this case is alarming due to the failure of the safeguards designed to prevent it.
“There are procedures in place to ensure this does not happen and that is why it so rarely does. It took a confluence of events and decisions to allow these four people to double vote,” Nessel said in a statement. “Nevertheless, the fact that four incidents occurred in a municipality of this size raised significant concerns and is simply unheard-of.”
The charges stem from incidents in St. Clair Shores where the four residents allegedly appeared at their polling location to cast in-person ballots after submitting absentee ballots. Poll workers were reportedly instructed by assistant clerks to override warnings on already marked absentee ballots as received on state’s Electronic Poll Book system before issuing them with an additional ballot for casting at polling stations; both types were counted towards final tallying.
Assistant clerks are further accused altering State Qualified Voter File (SQVF) falsely marking rejected status for submitted absentees enabling inclusion into final tallying process.
The discovery was made by St.Clair Shores clerk after primary elections who reported it leading Macomb County Prosecutor’s office along with local police authorities launching investigation resulting into felony charges against seven individuals involved including those who voted twice.
Arraignment dates have not been scheduled yet for defendants; attorneys representing them were unavailable immediately for comment on these allegations.
Concerns over election integrity among U.S voters have been mounting steadily over time according Gallup poll results published recently indicating percentage Americans expressing “not at all confident” sentiment about electoral process has risen from 6% back during 2004 reaching upto 19% during year 2024.
While majority (57%) voters express confidence regarding accurate counting presidential votes this year; deep partisan divide persists between Democrats & Republicans where record high gap exists (56%) between two groups -84% Democrats expressing confidence compared only 28% Republicans do so
