The Secretary of State's office is set to remove over 300,000 inactive voters in April.
The primary reasons voter registrations are canceled: people moving from their voting jurisdiction, death, a registration has been duplicated or if a voter requests it.
Michigan has more than seven million active voters. More than 5.7 million voted in the last election.
“This is a milestone for Michigan’s secure and accessible election system,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a statement. “State and local election officials are constantly working to maintain our voter rolls transparently, accurately, and in accordance with state and federal law. Our diligent efforts to keep our voter file up to date have helped us identify and take action to legally remove over 1.1 million out-of-date registrations from the rolls, while ensuring that eligible voters retain their rights under the law.”
There are nearly 600,000 inactive registrations in the state’s Qualified Voter File (QVF). Additionally, the Secretary of State's office said there are about 600,000 inactive voter registrations belonging to voters who have not cast a ballot in the last six years. These may be voters who have died or moved.
State and federal law require these inactive registrations to remain in the QVF until election officials receive reliable information that the voter is no longer eligible to vote. Reliable sources include the voter surrendering a Michigan driver’s license to another state or election mail sent to the voter being returned to their clerk as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service.
Voters can check their registration status online at Michigan.gov/Vote or by contacting their local clerk.
Michigan voters can register or re-register at any time, including up to and on Election Day.
