The Qualified Voter File, or QVF, is Michigan’s official list of people registered to vote. The Michigan Department of State oversees the database, while local election clerks across the state update it.
The QVF helps election officials confirm who is eligible to vote, where voters live and which voting district they belong to. It includes more than 8.3 million registered voters, according to state officials.
“It is updated 24/7 across the state by all of our local election clerks. We are always making steps to make sure that someone passes away, that we remove them from the rolls. We take steps to ensure that only eligible citizens are on the rolls,” said Aghogho Edevbie, Michigan’s deputy secretary of state.
Each year, Michigan removes about 100,000 people who have died from the voter rolls.
The state checks records from sources including the Social Security Administration and Michigan’s vital records system.
Voter registrations may also be canceled when a voter moves away from their voting jurisdiction, when duplicate registrations are identified or when a voter requests that their registration be canceled.
