A civil rights organization has warned the Ypsilanti Township clerk she may be violating state election laws and the U.S. Constitution by aggressively purging names from the voter rolls.
“We write to express serious concern that some voters in Ypsilanti Township —potentially hundreds of voters—may have been wrongfully purged from the voting rolls,” said a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan to the township clerk this week. “We are in receipt of information, including communications made by your own office, that Ypsilanti voters were purged when mail sent to their home was returned to your office as undeliverable.”
The ACLU said it was made aware of an issue by a township voter who said she had been illegally removed from the voter rolls after an absentee ballot and follow-up notice were returned to the township as undeliverable, even though the voter still lived at the address. The voter, whom the ACLU did not name, said the problem was with the post office interrupting mail delivery to the address.
“The law makes it clear that just because you’re having a problem with your mail doesn’t mean you can be thrown off the voting rolls and potentially disenfranchised,” ACLU senior attorney Phil Mayor said.
Mayor said Ypsilanti Township had an unusually high number of absentee ballot cancellations in the 2025 August primary and November general election – more than 30% of all the absent voter registrations in the state cancelled for that reason. He said that could indicate a systemic problem that denied as many as 200 people their right to vote. Mayor said that matters particularly right now as local clerks face political pressure to clear names from voter rolls for sometimes-flimsy reasons.
Mayor said the legal remedy is to put the registrations in question on a watch list for at least two federal election cycles before taking some action. He said the ACLU would consider filing a lawsuit alleging a constitutional voting rights violation if the problem is not fixed.
Ypsilanti Township Clerk Debbie Swanson is relatively new to the job since she was elected in 2024. She said that she takes the ACLU complaint seriously.
“I wanted you to know that I’m in receipt of the ACLU letter dated January 27, 2026,” she said in a phone interview. “We’re looking into the concerns that were raised and look forward to working with the ACLU on this matter.”
The ACLU also asked for a response by February 13 and filed a Freedom of Information Act request for more documents.
The Michigan Bureau of Elections and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson were copied on the ACLU’s letter. A spokesperson for Benson said the letter is being reviewed.
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