Kristina Karamo, the Trump- and Michigan GOP-endorsed contender for Michigan Secretary of State, has been telling journalists and voters that her vote in the November 2020 election "potentially did not count" and was one of multiple "anomalies" in Oakland County. But an investigation shows it did.
Kristina Karamo (Photo: Twitter)
The Detroit News reports that Karamo's claim is "incorrect and lacks significant context." Via a public records request, the paper obtained Karamo's application to vote in person on Nov. 3, 2020 in Precinct 12 in Oak Park. What's more:
Any discrepancy with records displaying the fact was because of an administrative delay in two precincts' voting histories being added to the state's official voter file — an act that's separate from counting votes, said Ed Norris, Oak Park's clerk.
"There's no conspiracy," Norris said Wednesday. "It was something that we just didn't do at the local level. ... It doesn't affect the vote at all."
Karamo has claimed in at least one interview that "according to the state of Michigan, I did not vote. ...I am a victim of a corrupted election system in my own vote potentially not being counted."
But state records show Karamo's voting history -- public documents in Michigan -- and indicate she did indeed cast a ballot in November 2020, and in primary and general elections going back to 2010, the paper discovered.
However:
After elections, local clerks upload voting information to the state's qualified voter file, which is the basis for databases that track participation histories. For two of Oak Park's 16 precincts, the information was uploaded late, not until January, said Norris, the city's clerk.
The office Karamo is running for oversees elections in Michigan, although most of the work is done at the local level by city clerks.
