ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. – Felony charges have been filed against four St. Clair Shores voters who voted twice in the August 2024 primary election and the three election employees accused of helping them.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the charges at a press conference on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. She said four people in St. Clair Shores voted twice, once by absentee ballot, and once again on election day at their local polling places. The three election workers are accused of violating the law by willfully allowing the double voting to occur.
The instances of double voting in St. Clair Shores occurred across three separate precincts. Nessel said that double voting in Michigan is extremely rare. While more than 1.8 million Michigan residents voted in the primary, there were only 59 reported instances of double voting in the state.
“The fact that four incidents occurred in a single municipality of this size raises significant concerns, it’s shocking, and it’s simply unheard of. There are procedures in place to ensure that this does not happen and that’s why it so rarely does. It really took a perfect storm to come together to allow these four individuals to double vote. Which included voters, who were willing to vote twice. The completion of affidavits that were false, poll workers who did not turn them away as they should have, and municipal clerks who illegally altered the qualified voter file, Nessel said.
4 St. Clair Shores voters charged
The four St. Clair Shores voters have each been charged with one count of voting absentee and in-person, a felony charge which comes with a maximum penalty of 5 years, and one count of offering to vote more than once, which is a felony charge with a maximum penalty of 4 years.
They have been identified as:
- Frank Prezzato, 68.
- Stacy Kramer, 56.
- Douglas Kempkins, Jr., 44.
- Geneva O’Day, 62.
3 St. Clair Shores poll workers charged
Two assistant clerks have been each charged with one count of falsifying election returns or records, a felony with a maximum penalty of 5 years, one count of voting absentee and in person, and one count of offering to vote more than once.
They have been identified as:
- Patricia Guciardo, 73.
- Emily McClintock, 42.
One assistant clerk faces two counts of falsifying election returns or records, two counts of voting absentee and in person, and two counts of offering to vote more than once.
They have been identified as:
- Molly Brasure, 31.
They have each been charged in the 40th District Court in St. Clair Shores. An arraignment date has not yet been set.
Breaking down the allegations
Prezzato, Kramer, Kempkins, and O’Day are all accused of going to their local polling location in St. Clair Shores and requesting ballots to vote in the August Primary Election. They were informed by local poll volunteers that their absentee ballots had already been received.
Even though there were warnings in the Electronic Poll Book showing that they had already voted by absentee ballot and that the ballot had been received by the local clerk, the election workers were allegedly instructed by Guciardo, McClintock, and Brasure to override the system warnings and issue in-person ballots. The voters cast the in-person ballots, which were counted alongside their absentee ballots, meaning they voted twice.
The assistant clerks are accused of illegally altering the voter file to designate the returned absentee ballots as rejected rather than received but did not make any effort to make sure the ballot was rejected from the absentee voter counting board. Because of this, the absentee ballots were counted on election day.
Why are charges coming now?
After the election, St. Clair Shores Clerk Abrial Barret reported the four instances of double voting to elected Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini, the St. Clair Shores Police Department, and the state Bureau of Elections.
The investigation was referred to the Department of Attorney General by the Michigan Department of State on August 15. The next day, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office announced that it intended to investigate and potentially prosecute in this case. Later that month, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office announced that it would not be filing criminal charges.
“Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido announced on August 29 that his office would not be filing criminal charges. Upon my department’s receipt of the case, however, it became immediately evident to us that these events, again, were extremely rare, extremely unusual, and that the prosecutor’s office conducted no additional investigation of its own beyond what was submitted to them in the police report. And I will say, additionally, you know, I watched some of the interviews of Prosecutor Lucido when he was denying the charges, and frankly, some of the statements he made were just factually inaccurate and also legally incorrect. My office undertook a thorough and investigative investigation of this matter and it’s our opinion that the evidence supported the criminal charges. And that it was plain to us, and while I won’t speculate on why the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office declined to more thoroughly investigate or bring the appropriate criminal charges, it’s just clear to us that the handling of this matter was insufficient,” Nessel said.
The attorney general’s investigation included:
- Reviewing voting records, police reports from the St. Clair Shores police department, and a report from the Michigan Department of State Enforcement Division;
- Interviewing elections inspectors for these precincts, the now-charged St. Clair Shores assistant clerks, the St. Clair Shores city clerk, and Michigan’s Director of Elections; and
- Analyzing the Qualified Voter File for timestamped changes.