In October 2020, Muskegon City Clerk Ann Meisch received a large batch of completed voter registration applications (estimates commonly given as 8,000–10,000, with some reports of similar large volumes) delivered by a canvasser associated with GBI Strategies (a Tennessee-based for-profit firm also linked in reports to Empower Michigan operations). She noticed clear irregularities: nonexistent addresses (e.g., a high school listed as a residence), invalid phone numbers, mismatched signatures, and similar handwriting across forms. She reported this to local police and turned over suspect forms. The problematic ones were invalidated; they were not processed into the voter rolls.⁠Wlns Michigan State Police, the Muskegon Police Department, and the Michigan Attorney General’s office investigated. Search warrants were executed at related locations (including a Southfield office), recovering items such as tablets, prepaid phones, pay cards, incomplete forms, and vehicles used by canvassers. (Some firearms were found but were reported as legal with tax stamps.) The case was later referred to the FBI in 2021 because of the firm’s multi-state operations and out-of-state base.⁠Bridgemi The Group GBI Strategies LLC is a for-profit voter-registration and get-out-the-vote firm (based in the Cordova/Memphis, TN area, with Gary Bell / Gary Bell Gossett identified as a key principal). It primarily worked for Democratic candidates and committees. Federal campaign finance data shows it received roughly $4.7 million in the 2020 cycle from Democratic-aligned sources, including significant payments from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($2.1 million), the DNC, and the Biden campaign ($450,000), among others. It operated in multiple Michigan cities (Muskegon, Detroit, Flint, Benton Harbor, Southfield, etc.) and other states.⁠Influencewatch Investigation Findings Investigators determined that some applications were “clearly fraudulent” or highly suspicious. Low-level canvassers admitted (in police and later FBI interviews) to fabricating forms—making up names and people, signing in others’ names, or filling in blanks—to meet production quotas and get paid (via gift cards or similar incentives tied to volume). One individual estimated submitting about 100 fakes. Michigan officials (including the AG’s office under Democrat Dana Nessel) characterized this as fraud by lower-level employees inflating their output rather than a coordinated company effort to inject fake voters into the election system.⁠Ohiocapitaljournal