Four citizens of St. Clair Shores were charged on Friday by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for casting duplicate ballots in the August 2024 primary election.
In addition, three assistant clerks are charged with felonies for falsely marking ballots as received rather than rejected.
“My office has been committed to pursuing, investigating and, when necessary, charging, cases of election fraud, and have done so when the evidence provides for criminal charges,” Nessel stated. “Election integrity matters, and we must take these violations seriously in order to ensure we can trust the results on the other end.”
When Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido decided not to press charges in the case, Nessel became involved.
Nessel argued that Lucido was factually and legally incorrect when he claimed that voters intended to ruin their absentee ballots and cast their ballots in person.
Nessel stated that, “Despite common talking points by those who seek to instill doubt in our electoral process, double voting in Michigan is extremely rare. 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.”
Frank Prezzato, 68, Stacey Kramer, 56, Douglas Kempkins Jr., 44, and Geneva O’Day, 62, all of St. Clair Shores, were among the individuals charged.
Each is subject to a potential penalty of five years in prison for voting absentee and in-person, as well as a maximum penalty of four years in prison for offering to vote more than once.
Patricia Guciardo,73, and Emily McClintock,42, assistant clerks, are each charged with one count of falsifying election returns or records, which has a maximum punishment of five years in prison. Additionally, each of them is accused of voting both in person and absentee, as well as offering to vote more than once.
The 31-year-old assistant clerk Molly Brasure is accused of two charges of falsifying election returns or records, two counts of voting in person and absentee voting, and two counts of offering to vote more than once.
In a statement, Nessel’s office noted that Prezzato, Kramer, Kempkins, and O’Day visited a polling place in person but were informed that their absentee ballots had already been received.
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To enable the four to vote in person as well, Guciardo, McClintock, and Brasure are said to have given election workers instructions to disregard and override warnings in the Electronic Poll Book.
For the four individuals, this meant that the votes cast in person and by mail were tallied. The State Qualified Voter File was purportedly illegally altered by the clerks, for which they were charged.
