Two Republican state senators in Michigan are requesting a full audit of the 2020 election results in the state, citing voting machine “glitches,” and numerous allegations of election irregularities.
Michigan state senators Lana Theis and Tom Barrett sent a letter to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson Thursday, “urging” her to conduct an official audit before the State Board of Canvassers certify the 2020 General Election results.
“Every citizen deserves to have faith in the integrity of the election process and its outcome,” Thies and Barrett wrote. “It is our responsibility, as elected public servants, to assure the people of Michigan of the process’s integrity through complete transparency and the faithful investigation of any allegations of wrongdoing, fraud, or abuse.”
In Antrim County an election software “glitch” incorrectly directed 6,000 votes to Democrats. Antrim is one of 47 Michigan counties in the state that uses Dominion Voting Systems to process ballots. In the past week, a number of conservatives, including President Trump, have leveled major allegations of election fraud involving the voting software company. Dominion voting software is used in 28 states.
In a tweet, Thursday, Trump cited a One America News Network report that suggested a much larger problem with the controversial voting software.
“REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.” @ChanelRion @OANN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020
Trump Campaign attorney Matt Morgan said in a press call Thursday evening that the campaign “will thoroughly pursue” an investigation into the allegations.
Theis and Barret’s letter listed a number of allegations of malfeasance on the part of Michigan election officials:
- – Counted ineligible ballots and counted the same batches of ballots multiple times
– Instructed poll workers to backdate absentee ballots and counted late ballots after pre-dating them
– Used false information to process ballots
– Accepted ballots deposited into drop boxes after the deadline
– Duplicated ballots illegally
– Ordered election workers not to verify voter signatures on absentee ballots
– Barred poll challengers from observing and coached voters for a particular candidate and party.
The letter also claims that a batch of 40,000 ballots turned up in the wee hours of Wednesday morning at TCF Center in Detroit from out-of-state vehicles.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the Trump Campaign’s allegations are frivolous.
And MI Sec. of State Benson last week stood by the accuracy of the election results.
“Michigan’s elections were conducted fairly, effectively, and transparently and are an accurate reflection of the will of Michigan voters,” Benson said last week. “As Detroit officials have stated, hundreds of challengers from both parties were inside their absent voter counting board all afternoon and evening. And even after some left, there were always challengers from both parties in the room. Dozens of reporters were in the room as well. ”
Benson also said in a statement last week that there had been no backdating of ballots in the election.
“No ballots were backdated,” she said in a statement. “A clerical error was made when some ballot envelopes were received in Detroit satellite offices. Although employees stamped a date of receipt on the envelopes, an employee failed to complete the transaction for receiving the ballot by saving that date in the Qualified Voter File. Therefore, at the absent voter counting board, after discussion with Republican challengers who chose not to challenge the process, the staff was instructed to enter that date stamped on the envelope ensuring that no voters were disenfranchised by the clerical error.”
As for the Antrim County Dominion issues, she said:
The erroneous reporting of unofficial results from Antrim county was a result of an accidental error on the part of the Antrim County Clerk. The equipment and software did not malfunction and all ballots were properly tabulated. However, the clerk accidentally did not update the software used to collect voting machine data and report unofficial results.
Like many counties in Michigan, Antrim County uses the Dominion Voting Systems election management system and voting machines (ballot tabulators.) The county receives programming support from Election Source. Tabulators are programmed to scan hand-marked, paper ballots. When machines are finished scanning the ballots, the paper ballots are retained and a totals tape showing the number of votes for each candidate in each race is printed from the machine.
In order to report unofficial results, county clerks use election management system software to combine the electronic totals from tabulators and submit a report of unofficial results. Because the clerk did not update software, even though the tabulators counted all the ballots correctly, those accurate results were not combined properly when the clerk reported unofficial results.
Republican State Rep. Aric Nesbitt appeared on Derek Hunter’s podcast on Thursday to explain the widespread fraud going on in his state.
Nesbitt told Hunter that a review of the August primary found that 72 percent of Detroit’s absentee counting boards could not reconciled and nearly half of all precincts in Detroit could not be reconciled. He said that votes that could not be reconciled could not be recounted under Michigan law so all those problematic votes were counted.
Sens. Lana Theis and Tom Barrett’s letter is below:
