Michigan has 500,000 more registered voters than citizens eligible to vote

With early voting underway and weeks away from the election, the voter rolls in Michigan continue to generate controversy. The swing state has been at the center of electoral integrity disputes across the country between Democrats and Republicans.

The state has 8.4 million registered voters. That number exceeds the voting-age population by nearly 500,000, according to records reported this week by the local Bridge Michigan newspaper. According to it, this gap is one of the largest in the country and the widest among the Great Lakes states.

The issue is nothing new but it recently came to light again as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris traveled to the state for several campaign events. Both candidates are trying to win votes with economic promises, especially to the auto industry, while criticizing their opponent's record.

Electoral list 'inflation' in court

In March of this year, the Republican National Committee (RNC) sued local Democratic authorities for failing to comply with the National Voter Registration Act by failing to keep "clean and accurate voter registration records." In the lawsuit, the RNC claimed that at least 53 counties in the state had more registered voters than adults over the age of 18: "That number of voters is impossibly high."

"An additional 23 counties have active-voter registration rates that exceed 90 percent of adult citizens over the age of 18," the court filing also claims. "That figure far eclipses the national and statewide voter registration rate in recent elections."

With more than one million early votes cast in this election, the lawsuit is still pending.

An attempt to 'sow distrust' 

A GOP lawsuit in 2020, similar to the current one, ended up being dismissed after Democratic election officials, following a backlash in court, removed thousands of people from the rolls. Regarding the current case, state officials claimed that the Republican challenges are nothing more than an attempt to sow distrust in the election process.

In response to a question from Elon Musk about the surplus of registered voters, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson accused the businessman of "spreading dangerous disinformation." "There aren’t more voters than citizens in Michigan," she posted on X, "There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 citizens of voting age in our state."

Benson claims that Musk’s numbers include voters "slated for removal." Those "inactive records," however, remain on the rolls as Trump and Harris battle it out for Michigan's 15 electoral votes.