Living woman can't vote in Michigan election, told she was dead

HAZEL PARK, Mich. (WJBK) - A Detroit area woman showed up to vote at her precinct on Election Day was turned away. Not because she failed to register to vote, but because the state said she was dead.

Cindy Neaves showed up at her precinct in Hazel Park on Tuesday to do her civic duty: to vote. Instead, she went back to her car and cried because she was told she couldn't vote, because she was dead.

"First time since 18 years old, I couldn't vote. I sat in my car and cried," Neaves said. "I'm not dead, I haven't been dead, ever."

According to the Social Security office, she died in January 2017. This error has been a problem for her.

"I've been spending the last two years of my life trying to get things reinstated," she said.

What she's trying to do, in the government's eyes, is come back from the dead.

Neaves was the guardian of her brother Mark, who had Down's Syndrome. When Mark died, Cindy was mistakenly put on the "death master file" by social security which affects just about everything in your life - credit cards, credit rating, bank accounts, you're driver's license, etc.

She found out she died when American Express sent her family a condolence letter. 

She tried to get it figured out by going to the Social Security office and got a letter confirming that she was, in fact, alive.

"Social Security in Clawson, Michigan, said they made a mistake," she said.

That allowed her to renew her driver's license but it stopped her from voting, no matter how nice the volunteers at the precinct were.

"They tried everything they could. Hazel Park polling was super sweet. They tried everything, they called everybody they could think of," Neaves said.

On Wednesday, after not being able to vote, she went back to the Secretary of State's office to once again try and undo her death.

The data entry error doesn't happen very often. Cindy said she's not bitter even though she couldn't vote.