Fact-Check: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Claims Elon Musk Spreading “Verifiably False Information” Regarding Registered Voters in Michigan
Last weekend, Elon Musk took to his X platform to call attention to the State of Michigan’s bloated voter rolls. In the post, Musk stated, “Michigan has more registered voters than eligible citizens!? Is that true @communitynotes?”
The Gateway Pundit’s Patty McMurray reported on this claim by Musk over the weekend as well.
The post by Musk resonated like a tuning a fork to the ear of Michigan's Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who responded that evening with the following:
Let’s be clear: [Elon Musk] is spreading dangerous disinformation.
Here are the facts:
There aren’t more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 citizens of voting age in our state.
Musk is pushing a misleading number that includes 1.2 million inactive records slated for removal in accordance with the law. Don’t feed the trolls.
But now Benson has doubled-down on her misinformation: the secretary joined Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC's Deadline in an effort to (somehow) legitimize her argument to a bigger audience.
Wallace started the segment off by claiming that the "thankless job" of being a poll worker is now a "profoundly dangerous job" because personalities like Elon Musk "willfully lie and spread verifiably false information on their pet project" on X. Wallace claims that Musk lied "about their being more registered voters than eligible in Michigan...not only is Elon Musk contributing to a foundational erosion of our democracy, he's putting real people in danger."
Wallace then brought on Secretary Benson to "set the record straight," but not before asking her about the feud with Musk. Spoiler alert: she never "sets the record straight" or even attempts to offer any facts...because Musk was correct.
No, Benson came on to do nothing more than to claim Musk is spread 'mis- and disinformation'. Benson responded about the feud:
"Well, it struck me as kind of odd and sad that someone who has such power and influence would use that power and influence not to help educate people about how to vote in this moment, or how to even just ask questions if you have them about election security, but instead attack an election official in a swing state who's trying her best, as I am, to make sure everyone, no matter who they vote for, can have rightly placed faith in our elections."
Wallace goes on about whether or not Musk "asked" Benson about the facts because "[Benson's] response was just about facts."
While misinformation lends itself better to soundbites than the nuances of election law, everyone, no matter who they vote for, deserves to have rightly placed faith in our elections. Get all your facts and information from https://t.co/Qh4ow0MLQ5
Thanks @NicolleDWallace and… pic.twitter.com/UOzRBpjMn9
— Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) October 24, 2024
So here are the facts.
Musk was absolutely correct. There are currently 8,446,131 registered Michigan voters according to the Michigan Department of State's own website.
According to the US Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate, there are 10,037,261 Michigan residents. Of those, 21% are over the age of 18.
This would mean that there are approximately 7,929,000 voting-age people living in Michigan. The US Census does not track citizenship, despite President Trump's efforts, so this is not indicative of 7.929M eligible voters. The US Census estimates 6.9% of Michiganders are "foreign born" (appx. 547k people) but does not mention citizenship.
Benson, who failed to give any "facts" on Wallace's show, did post in her response to Musk that there are 7.2 million active registered voters. This number is mentioned on the Dept. of State website below the "Registered Voters" total.
This would mean that 91% of Michigan voters of eligible voting age are registered to vote and active voters. Again, this does not take into consideration "foreign born" (6.9%) who are not eligible to vote (whether illegal immigrants or here on some sort of visa).
Benson then asserts that 1.2 million inactive records are slated for removal, however, the Dept. of State website states that 338,719 voters are slated for cancellation in 2025 and 256,710 are slated for cancellation in 2027 for a total of 595,429. This is not even half of the 1.2 million Benson claimed in her response to Musk.
And both 'clean-ups' will be conducted following the Presidential and mid-term elections, of course.
So what's the difference between an "active" and "inactive" voter and what process does one have to go about doing in order to become "active" again? Well, an inactive voter, according to the Dept. of State website, is a voter that the state:
"receives information that the voter may have moved (e.g., when election mails is returned as undeliverable, or when a voter surrenders their driver's license in another state) and a voter does not respond to a notice of cancellation" or "if the voter has no activity in the Qualified Voter File for a period of six years."
And how does one get back to an active status? Well, they can respond to the notice of cancellation, which seems reasonable. But they can also be reactivated by applying for a ballot or just simply voting.
Former US Army officer Seth Keshel pointed out in his extensive research on Substack that Michigan has 83.5% of its total population currently registered to vote (active and inactive). By comparison, Pennsylvania only has 68.1% of its total population registered while Wisconsin is at 58.5%.
Keshel highlighted how passionate Roscommon County, MI is about registering voters. In fact, they have 100.28% of their total population registered! Perhaps Roscommon Co. has "automatic voter registration for live-births" in addition to motor-voter registration. The county of 23,949 registered voters but a total population, including under 18, of just 23,863.
According to Keshel's research, there are eight counties with registrations above 95%. Perhaps even more concerning is that just four counties have under 75% registered. Again: Pennsylvania is at 68.1% and Wisconsin 58.5%.
Keshel also references registration numbers of three large counties that do not participate in motor voter registration (see below): Pinal County, AZ (55.4%), Tarrant County, TX (58.1%) and Milwaukee County, WI (53.7%).
Michigan is still a member of the ERIC registration system, which publishes in its own bylaws that member-states cannot send up citizenship information with voter information.
Let’s be clear: @elonmusk is spreading dangerous disinformation.
Here are the facts:
There aren’t more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 citizens of voting age in our state.
Musk is pushing a misleading number that… https://t.co/hybJf8G9KH
— Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) October 20, 2024
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