Michigan Governor appoints new member to elections board after GOP wanted replacement | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has appointed a new Republican to a key state elections panel after the state party sought to replace a member who voted in favor of certifying the state's election results. Tony Daunt will replace Aaron Van Langevelde on the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, Whitmer said in an announcement Tuesday morning. Daunt is the executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund, a conservative organization with ties to the DeVos family that organized some of the protests in the spring where marchers objected to the governor's COVID-19 executive orders. He previously worked for Gov. Rick Snyder and the Michigan Republican Party.  "I appreciate the nomination from (Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox) and the appointment by Governor Whitmer,” Daunt said in a statement issued through the fund. “The Board of State Canvassers requires leaders willing to follow the rule of law and to provide honest leadership, and I am honored to be entrusted with this position. Aaron Van Langevelde served with honor and integrity, and the entire state owes him a debt of gratitude. Our republic depends on fair and secure elections and I’m committed to upholding those values.”

Full Article: Tony Daunt appointed to Michigan Board of State Canvassers

Michigan Republicans seek to replace canvasser who certified election | Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

The Michigan Republican Party wants to replace the GOP member of the Board of State Canvassers who cast the pivotal vote to certify election results in favor of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. With party activists calling for certification to be blocked on Nov. 23, Aaron Van Langevelde, a policy adviser and deputy legal counsel for state House Republicans, joined the two Democrats on the four-member board to sign offon the results.His term ends on Jan. 31. Instead of renominating him for a four-year term, the Michigan Republican Party has proposed three well-known activists to take his spot, according to a letter obtained by The Detroit News. Among them is Linda Lee Tarver, who was involved in a lawsuit that sought to have the GOP-controlled Legislature intervene in the results showing Democratic President-elect Joe Biden won. Van Langevelde said he was never asked if he’d like another term on the board, unlike the first time he was nominated, when the party approached him about serving. He said the party’s decision came as no surprise, but he stood by his vote and said he was proud of the board’s decision. “My conscience is clear, and I am confident that my decision is on the right side of the law and history,” Van Langevelde said in a Monday statement. “Time will tell that those who spread misinformation and tried to overturn the election were wrong, and they should be held responsible for the chaos and confusion they have caused.” In addition to Tarver, a longtime former employee of the Michigan Department of State, the state Republican Party also nominated Tony Daunt, director of the conservative Michigan Freedom Fund, and Tori Sachs, a political strategist and executive director of Michigan Rising Action.

Full Article: Michigan Republicans seek to replace canvasser who certified election

Michigan election officials begin statewide audit of Nov. 3 vote | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

Michigan election officials began conducting a statewide audit of the Nov. 3 general election Monday that involves reviewing ballots from more than half of the state's local jurisdictions, which is more than have ever participated in such an audit in the nation, according to the Secretary of State's Office. The Michigan Department of State will work with county and local election officials to undertake the "risk-limiting" audit, which will entail hand counting ballots from randomly selected jurisdictions across the state. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said she hopes the audit will increase confidence in the election process and outcome after a disinformation campaign by President Donald Trump and his allies to sow doubt on the election precipitated the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6. "Post-election audits are an important part of the elections process and are critical to both affirming the accuracy of the results and reinforcing citizen trust in the system," Benson said. She added, "This year more than ever, with the high volume of misinformation spread about what was an incredibly safe, secure and accurate election, conducting this bipartisan process openly and transparently is an important step in ensuring Michigan voters understand the truth about the security and integrity of our election system."

Full Article: Michigan election officials begin statewide audit

Michigan Attorney General claims wins in ongoing presidential election fraud cases | Gus Burns/MLive.com

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Office claimed victories in two separate court rulings Monday related to unresolved election fraud lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it won’t expedite the hearing of a federal lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump voters against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the city of Detroit and others related to unfounded election fraud claims. “The Supreme Court’s decision put another nail in the coffin on the bogus claims of widespread fraud in Michigan’s election,” Nessel said following the decision Monday. The second ruling involves a motion filed in a state lawsuit by attorneys for William Bailey of Central Lake in Antrim County, who claims Dominion Voting Systems ballot tabulation machines contributed to inaccurate and potentially corrupted election results. Judge Kevin Elsenheimer of the 13th Circuit Court in Antrim County on Dec. 6 granted Bailey permission to further analyze the county’s 22 tabulation machines. Bailey and his counsel then requested the identities of their selected analysts be withheld from the public. Elsenheimer denied that request, according to the AG’s Office. Antrim County’s failure to properly update its Dominion voting software initially resulted in incorrect reports of unofficial results, but the error was captured and corrected within two days. Once it was realized the totals generated by the county-level software didn’t match the precinct results, Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy, a Republican, said she and her staff manually reentered results from about 30 feet of printout “tapes” from each of her 16 precincts and 15 townships.

Full Article: Michigan AG claims wins in ongoing presidential election fraud cases - mlive.com

Michigan officials faced violent threats well before U.S. Capitol siege | Madeline Halpert/Bridge Michigan

After pro-Trump rioters stormed Washington’s Capitol to disrupt an Electoral College vote count, several public officials and security experts in Michigan said they aren’t surprised by the mayhem. Wednesday’s siege at the Capitol followed weeks of post-election threats to public officials in Michigan and other battleground states that left many concerned for their safety and wondering whether qualified people will want to serve in public official roles in the future. “I’ve been getting battered and flooded with emails and phone calls and texts for months,” said Jonathan Kinloch, the Democratic vice chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, one of several local and state bodies targeted by President Trump and his supporters after Michigan certified the November election for Democrat Joe Biden. “Nobody wants to take on a role as a member of a board of canvassers or any other community-serving positions and have the fear of losing their lives hanging over their head,” he said. Kinloch told Bridge Michigan he received at least 20 messages a day in November following the certification, some more aggressive than others. “Maybe you should peek out your windows and make sure the boogie man (sic) doesn't come for you while you smoke your crack,” read one email sent to Kinloch reviewed by Bridge. Javed Ali, a senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the Trump administration, noted that the chaos at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday followed a tumultuous and politically-polarizing year in Michigan during which armed civilians stormed the state Capitol to protest COVID-19 restrictions in the spring and militia members were charged in October with plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The divisiveness was exacerbated by the president and his supporters, who threw gasoline on the fire with false allegations of a “rigged” election, Ali said.

Full Article: Michigan officials faced violent threats well before U.S. Capitol siege | Bridge Michigan

Michigan lawmakers hunkered down as rioters breached US Capitol | Todd Spangler and Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

As an unprecedented confrontation at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday devolved the finalizing of the Nov. 3 election for President-elect Joe Biden into chaos, members of Congress, including those from Michigan, hunkered down in offices, sheltered in place and were moved to undisclosed locations as President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the building. With shots being fired and tear gas being released in the halls of Congress, the Electoral College count was suspended at least temporarily as the National Guard was called in, a 6 p.m. curfew was imposed in Washington D.C. and members of the U.S. House and Senate voiced disbelief at the violent turn of events. "There was shooting at the doors and they evacuated all of us to an undisclosed location," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, who was on the floor of the U.S. House when protesters overwhelmed Capitol Police and swarmed the building. "Is this America?" she asked, clearly shaken. "Is this the country we believe in?" “They tried to lock us in to keep us safe," she added, "but that ended when people started pounding on the doors. We heard them shooting at the doors. People are in hand-to-hand combat in the Capitol.”

Full Article: Michigan lawmakers hunkered down as rioters breached US Capitol

Michigan: Trump repeated lies about election before pro-Trump supporters stormed Capitol | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

Hours before pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, forcing lawmakers convening to certify the Electoral College votes to seek safety, President Donald Trump gave a speech repeating lies that he won the election and unleashed a litany of debunked claims about Michigan's election, which President-elect Joe Biden won by more than 154,000 votes. After the riots broke out, Trump waited two hours to press for calm. In a tweet, Trump told his supporters to "stay peaceful" but did not condemn the actions by his supporters. In a video released an hour before a 6 p.m. curfew in Washington, D.C., Trump continued to press baseless claims of election fraud, repeating the false claim that the election was stolen from him. Trump opened his video by saying, “I know your pain. I know your hurt. But you have to go home now.” He also went on to call his supporters “very special,” and said, “We can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”

Full Article: Trump's false claims about Michigan election followed by violence

Michigan: Sidney Powell Should Lose State Law License, Detroit Argues | Joel Rosenblatt/Bloomberg

Detroit officials want former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell to lose her license to practice law in Michigan as punishment for pursuing far-fetched litigation to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Powell is the highest-profile leader of a group of lawyers behind the “Kraken,” her reference to the mythical sea monster, that she promised would be unleashed in the courts and prove that Biden beat incumbent Donald Trump only because Democrats engaged in a massive fraud. Powell’s suit in Michigan was knowingly based on lies and is so frivolous that the group behind it requires the harshest penalty, Detroit said Tuesday in a court filing. “This lawsuit, and the lawsuits filed in the other states, are not just damaging to our democratic experiment, they are also deeply corrosive to the judicial process itself,” lawyers for the city said in a request to U.S. District Judge Linda V. Parker to refer Powell for state bar disciplinary proceedings in Michigan and her home state of Texas. Parker last month rejected an attempt by Powell and her fellow attorneys to decertify Michigan’s election results. Powell and the group let a three-week period to withdraw their suit lapse. Detroit argues that’s because it’s taken on a new life supporting arguments for Congress to reject Michigan’s electors on Jan. 6. The Detroit lawyers say Trump repeated the false claims in the Michigan lawsuit in his Saturday phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find” just enough votes to overturn Biden’s win.

Full Article: Sidney Powell Should Lose Michigan Law License, Detroit Argues - Bloomberg

Michigan: Trump repeats false claims about election in leaked Georgia phone call | Malachi Barrett/MLive.com

President Donald Trump repeated several inaccurate statements about Michigan’s election results while pressuring Georgia officials to overturn his defeat over the weekend. Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to reverse his loss in the state during a one-hour phone call published by The Washington Post. A recording of the conversation shows Trump pointed to false claims about Michigan while describing “turmoil” surrounding the results in several states won by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Raffensperger pushed back against Trump’s claims during the phone call, telling the president “the data you have is wrong” and “we don’t agree that you have won” Georgia. Election officials in Michigan have likewise debunked allegations Trump repeated Saturday about inflated turnout and dead people voting. Trump made two claims about Michigan deemed untrue by election officials. First, the president claimed “In Detroit, I think it was, 139% of the people voted.” Certified results show only 51% of the city turned out to vote. There are 506,305 registered voters in the city of Detroit, and 257,619 ballots were cast. Detroit turnout in the 2020 election was only slightly higher than in 2016, when 49% of registered voters cast a ballot. Trump earned 5,207 more Detroit votes in 2020, while Democratic votes increased by 6,055. Trump also claimed “a tremendous number of dead people” voted, suggesting “it was 18,000.” Trump said the figure came from “going through the obituary columns in the newspapers.” It’s not clear where the specific figure came from, but there is no evidence to corroborate what the president suggested over the weekend. Claims of dead voters in Michigan have been a common subject of unproven fraud allegations since the election.

Full Article: Trump repeats false claims about Michigan election in leaked Georgia phone call - mlive.com

Michigan Attorney General: Attorney in Antrim County case should reveal names of elections review team Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

An attorney working with a team that reviewed voting machines in Antrim County wants a judge to prevent Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel from publicly revealing the names or other identifying information of those who conducted the review. The report is at the heart of conspiracies furthered by President Donald Trump and others that incorrectly assert there was widespread election fraud in November. Attorney Matthew DePerno said in a recent legal filing that revealing personal information would endanger the team, whose members “fear for their safety and the safety of their families in this hyper-political climate.” He also says he has been personally threatened. However, a copy of the 23-page report posted to his law firm's website already includes the name of the firm that conducted the review on Dec. 6, and the name of the man who prepared the report. Attorneys working in Nessel's office told the court they are willing to agree to an order that would prohibit the release of any contact information, like phone numbers or addresses, for everyone involved in creating the report. But by asking the court to prevent the release of the names of the people who conducted the review, they say DePerno and his client are trying to both publicize the report while withholding information that could bolster or undermine its credibility.

Full Article: AG: Names of Antrim County election review team should be public

Michigan: Woman faces federal charges for sending threats, photo of bloody corpse to Wayne County canvasser | Malachi Barrett/MLive.com

A New Hampshire woman is facing federal charges for allegedly threatening the chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers through a series of text messages that included graphic photos of a mutilated corpse. Katelyn Jones, a 23-year-old former Olivet resident who now lives in Epping, New Hampshire, admitted to the FBI that she threatened Republican board member Monica Palmer because she felt Palmer was interfering with the presidential election. Jones is charged with transmitting threats of violence through interstate commerce and faces up to 20 years in federal prison, and a fine of up to $250,000, if convicted. “The allegations in this case should make all of us disgusted,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement. “There is simply no place in Michigan, or in the United States, for chilling threats like this to people who are simply doing what they believe is correct.” The Wayne County Board of Canvassers received national attention when Palmer and another Republican board member declined to certify results of the Nov. 3 election, citing unproven allegations of voter fraud touted by President Donald Trump and his allies. Both Republicans agreed to vote to certify results in exchange for an audit of Wayne County results, but Palmer later signed an affidavit saying she wanted to rescind her vote.

Full Article: Woman faces federal charges for sending threats, photo of bloody corpse to Wayne County canvasser

Michigan: Threat against Wayne County canvasser leads to federal charges for New Hampshire woman | Robert Snell/The Detroit News

Federal prosecutors Wednesday filed charges against a New Hampshire woman accused of texting threats to the chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers following the presidential election and sending photos of a bloody mutilated female body. Katelyn Jones, 23, a former Olivet resident who lives in Epping, was charged with threatening violence through interstate commerce following an FBI investigation that probed lingering fallout from President Donald Trump's defeat and baseless allegations about voting irregularities. The criminal complaint and an FBI affidavit filed in federal court describe threats made against Monica Palmer, chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, after the Republican canvasser voted against certifying the election results. Palmer faced intense scrutiny over her decision to decline certification, then certify and then attempt to rescind her vote on the final certification of roughly 878,000 votes in Michigan's largest county. "The allegations in this case should make all of us disgusted,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement. “There is simply no place in Michigan, or in the United States, for chilling threats like this to people who are simply doing what they believe is correct.” Palmer declined to comment Wednesday.

Full Article: Threat against Wayne Co. canvasser leads to federal charges for N.H. woman

Michigan is conducting postelection audits. Here’s how that works | Mikhayla Dunaj/Detroit Free Press

In early December, the Michigan Bureau of Elections announced and commenced the first stages of the state’s postelection audits. According the Secretary of State's Office, these are the most comprehensive postelection audits in Michigan’s history with a statewide risk-limiting audit in addition to procedural audits. Each of these audits ensures election protocol, procedures and results are sound in Michigan. Here are some answers to questions about the postelection auditing process. According to Michigan’s Post-Election Audit Manual, the process verifies that Michigan law and election procedures were followed correctly before, during and after Election Day. This includes reviewing voted ballots by hand to make sure tabulation equipment worked and gave correct results. The Michigan Election Security Advisory Commission published an October 2020 report that details the two types of postelection audits: procedural and tabulation audits. Procedural audits verify that election procedures are followed by reviewing election processes, machines and ballots in a jurisdiction. Procedural audits seek to examine clerical errors made on or before Election Day. For instance, they review poll books and ballots to determine why numbers didn't match. This gives local clerks a chance to prevent similar errors in future elections with updated protocol, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a guest column published last month. Tabulation audits randomly select precincts in a jurisdiction and recount all of their paper ballots by hand to confirm the accuracy of ballot tabulation machines.

Full Article: Michigan's post-election audit: What's involved, how it works

Michigan Attorney General to seek sanctions against some lawyers challenging vote results | Beth LeBlanc/The Detroit News

Attorney General Dana Nessel said she plans to seek sanctions against lawyers who filed lawsuits against the state's election results that contained "intentional misrepresentations" regarding Michigan's elections. The Democratic attorney general also plans to pursue court costs and fees and, along with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, to file complaints with the attorney grievance commission, Nessel told reporters Tuesday. The requests will likely be made after the cases have been closed out, she said. "Some of these cases where we know for a fact there were intentional misrepresentations made — the kind of misrepresentation that there is no question of fact that these were inaccurate statements that were presented to the court — yes, myself and also Secretary Benson, will be filing complaints to the attorney grievance commission," Nessel said.

Full Article: Nessel to seek sanctions against some lawyers challenging vote results

Michigan: Sanctions sought for lawyers who aimed to overturn election | Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

Attorney General Dana Nessel said she plans to seek sanctions against lawyers who filed lawsuits against the state's election results with claims that featured "intentional misrepresentations." The Democratic attorney general also plans to pursue court costs and fees and to file complaints with the attorney grievance commission, Nessel told reporters Tuesday. Her remarks came as the City of Detroit and an attorney for Wayne County voter Robert Davis took their own steps in search of sanctions against lawyers involved in one of the cases to overturn the state's presidential election. Davis and his attorney, Andrew Paterson, filed a motion Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court for Michigan's Eastern District for sanctions against the lawyers who represented six Michigan Republicans in asking a judge to require that President Donald Trump be named the state's winner. The Republican's case, which is known as King v. Whitmer, relied on conspiracy theories and discredited claims of wrongdoing. Trump lost Michigan to President-elect Joe Biden by 154,000 votes, according to the certified results, and no proof of widespread fraud has been presented. The court needs to sanction "the egregious conduct of the plaintiffs and their attorneys for making clearly frivolous arguments and using the judicial system to obtain unprecedented relief, to satisfy plaintiffs’ selfish and destructive political agendas," said the filing from Davis, who had intervened in the case.

Full Article: Sanctions sought for lawyers who aimed to overturn Michigan's election

Michigan: Report alleging election fraud in Antrim County is ‘baseless’ | Claire Savage/AFP

A report that is part of a lawsuit against Antrim County, Michigan claims the county’s quickly-corrected election night vote tally glitch was not due to human error, as the state said, but rather intentional election fraud. This is false; Michigan’s secretary of state called the claims “baseless,” and the company that provided the vote tabulation machines denied the allegations. “The Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results,” says the December 13, 2020 report filed as part of the case. Outlets Newsmax, Epoch Times and Gateway Pundit legitimized and spread the false claims, and social media users shared the report findings as fact here and here. The report cites a “significant and fatal error rate” of more than 68 percent, claiming that Dominion Voting Systems “intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors,” leading to “bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail.” In November, articles shared thousands of times on social media claimed that an Antrim County reporting mistake -- which temporarily misattributed Donald Trump votes to president-elect Joe Biden -- posed a systemic risk to dozens of counties in the battleground state. The Michigan secretary of state’s office published a notice explaining that the glitch resulted from a user error, not a software problem, and that it did not affect the election results or other counties or states.

Source: Report alleging election fraud in Michigan county is ‘baseless’ | Fact Check

Michigan Antrim County Hand Recount Confirms Accuracy of Machine Recount, with 12-Vote Gain for Trump | Beth LeBlanc/The Detroit News

An audit of Antrim County election results Thursday gave President Donald Trump a net gain of 12 votes from the certified results in the northern Michigan county, a small gain in light of unsubstantiated allegations of mass fraud targeting the county's election software. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's total decreased by one vote, from 5,960 to 5,959, while Trump's increased 11 votes, from 9,748 to 9,759, according to preliminary results from the county's more than seven-hour, livestreamed audit. Biden won the state of Michigan by more than 154,000 votes on Nov. 3, according to certified results. Third-party presidential candidates in Antrim County were off by zero to one vote compared with certified results. "This is very typical of what we find in a hand-count of ballots," said Lori Bourbonais, with the Michigan Department of State. "It is normal to find one or two votes in a precinct that differ between a hand tally and machine count." Earlier this month, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced a zero-margin risk-limiting audit of the presidential election in Antrim County. The audit includes a hand-tally of every ballot and compares that tally with machine-tabulated results. Among those assisting with the audit were staff from the Michigan Bureau of Elections; Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy, a Republican; Rochester Hills Clerk Tina Barton, a Republican, and Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope, a Democrat.

Full Article: Antrim County audit shows 12-vote gain for Trump

Michigan: Benson refuses to testify at House, says committee ‘wounding our democracy’ | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has refused an invitation to testify before a House legislative committee, arguing the committee's previous hearings with Rudy Giuliani and others show lawmakers are focused more on politics and undermining election integrity than on earnest reforms. On Wednesday, Benson tweeted a copy of the letter sent to House Oversight Committee Chairman Matt Hall, R-Emmett Township. In a statement Wednesday, Hall said Benson was "playing cheap political games." Hall's committee received international attention after Giuliani essentially commandeered portions of the more than four-hour proceeding, questioning his own witnesses while lawmakers largely watched. He used the misleading and inaccurate information provided during the hearing to argue state lawmakers must intervene in Michigan's ultimate election outcome and give the state to President Donald Trump. Noting some of this testimony, Benson argued the committee has the duty to publicly state the Michigan election was conducted fairly in order to combat misinformation spread during previous committee hearings. "This is the truth, as certified by our State Board of Canvassers, and it is important that every leader acknowledge this is in order for us to move forward and solve many of the critical issues ahead of us," Benson wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday.

Full Article: Benson refuses to testify at House, says committee 'wounding our democracy'

Michigan: New Supreme Court filing includes blatantly wrong information about election | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

A long-shot legal effort relying on conspiracy theories and inaccurate analyses to argue President Donald Trump actually won Michigan included additional blatantly false information in a new filing with the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The legal team, including attorney Sidney Powell, told the court the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature backs its effort to allow a so-called GOP slate of Electoral College delegates cast the state's 16 electoral votes for Trump. This is wrong. On Monday, Republican leaders of the Michigan House and Senate publicly acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden won the election. The same day, the state's actual 16 Electoral College delegates voted for Biden, who received 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan. It's unlikely the Supreme Court will take up this or any of the legal claims from Powell and her team. Powell previously appeared at news conferences with Rudy Giuliani and other Trump attorneys, but the campaign has since sought to distance itself from her. Gregory Rohl, a Michigan attorney working with Powell, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The group of Republicans who incorrectly argue they can cast electoral votes for Trump were not allowed into the state Capitol on Monday. Powell and her team represent several people who would have served as GOP delegates to the Electoral College had Trump won Michigan.

Full Are: New Supreme Court filing has blatantly wrong information about Michigan

Michigan: Former election security chief for Trump knocks down Antrim County report | Todd Spangler/Detroit Free Press

A former Trump administration official who oversaw election security and was ousted after saying there were no widespread problems on Wednesday pointed out problems with a report claiming irregularities in Antrim County and cited as proof of corruption by President Donald Trump and others. Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Chris Krebs, the former chief of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, called the report by Allied Security Operations Group throwing doubts on the election systems used in Antrim County "factually inaccurate." "It implies those systems are undependable," said Krebs, who explained that he went over the report the group issued as part of a lawsuit questioning the vote results in the county that has been used by Trump and his allies to widely suggest corruption. He said he could find nothing in it to support those claims. The Free Press, which has been following the Antrim County case, has looked closely at the Allied Security Operations Group report, which claims the county's equipment supplied by Dominion Voting Systems was "intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results." In those reports, the Free Press has concluded that some of its claims — including one that suggested machines had a 68% error rateas if that percentage of the county votes had been misred, left untallied or changed — were false or misleading. Krebs said when he went over the report he was thrown by that claim of a 68% error rate and he saw it "repeated in social media by the (Trump) campaign, by the president." But as he looked more closely, he concluded that the number cited by the group is the number of alerts reported by the voting machines or tabulators, not necessarily errors or changes in the actual ballots as they were counted.

Full Article: Antrim County report debunked by former Trump election official

Michigan: Paper ballots verified election results, says Dominion CEO in Senate oversight hearing | Samuel Dodge/MLive.com

Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos defended the integrity of his company’s tabulating machines Tuesday during a state Senate Oversight Committee hearing. The company has been the focus of a “disinformation campaign,” Poulos told committee members on Dec. 15, adding that he is not aware of any legal claim against his hardware or software that hasn’t been dismissed or deemed “inaccurate” in court. Even in the slim chance Dominion’s machines were compromised, he said, a hand count of the physical paper ballots would have shown disparities before the vote was certified by the Board of State Canvassers. “All the tabulator does is count the votes of the paper ballots that have been created and securely cast by the voters,” he said during his three-hour testimony. “The number reported by the machine can always be compared to a hand count of those original paper ballots. People can speculate about votes being switched or secret algorithms or glitches, but if any of that were true, the paper ballots wouldn’t match the machine count.” The state canvassing board certified the vote last month, and President Donald Trump has not requested a hand recount. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson will conduct a post-election audit, while the Michigan Bureau of Elections and Antrim County officials will tally all ballots by hand there, as many allegations against Dominion center around initial disparities reported in the county on Nov. 3.

Source: Paper ballots verified election results, says Dominion CEO in Senate oversight hearing - mlive.com

Michigan: Trump wrongly claims defect with voting machines | Paul Egan and Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

In a Tuesday tweet, Trump claimed there was a “68% error rate in Michigan Voting Machines. Should be, by law, a tiny percentage of one percent.” He suggested Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson would face legal scrutiny for the alleged errors. “Did Michigan Secretary of State break the law? Stay tuned!” Trump wrote. Trump was reacting to a consultant’s report that a judge made public Monday in connection with an election lawsuit in Antrim County, in northern Michigan, where a misapplied software update initially led to incorrect unofficial results being reported on election night. But Trump’s tweet misinterprets the findings of the report, which itself presents a misleading picture. Michigan vote tabulators do not read ballots incorrectly 68% of the time. Nor is that statement true if applied only to the Antrim County tabulators in the Nov. 3 election. And the report Trump reacted to, while ambiguous and inaccurate on the subject of errors, does not make that claim. The report is signed by cybersecurity analyst Russell James Ramsland Jr. of Allied Security Operations Group, a firm whose representatives have provided analyses and affidavits for lawsuits brought by Trump allies, falsely alleging voter fraud and election irregularities. In one such analysis on voter turnout, Ramsland mistook voting jurisdictions in Minnesota for Michigan towns. In another, filed in support of a federal lawsuit in Michigan, he made inaccurate claims about voter turnout in various municipalities, misstating them as much as tenfold.

Full Article: Trump wrongly claims defect with Michigan voting machines

Michigan: State, company officials dispute report on Antrim County voting | Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press

State officials are disputing a report on Antrim County's voting equipment — signed by a consultant who confused Michigan and Minnesota voting districts in an earlier election analysis — that says the county's equipment "is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results." Michigan Elections Director Jonathan Brater said in a weekend court filing the report "makes a series of unsupported conclusions, ascribes motives of fraud and obfuscation to processes that are easily explained as routine election procedures or error corrections, and suggests without explanation that elements of election software not used in Michigan are somehow responsible for tabulation or reporting errors that are either nonexistent or easily explained." And Dominion Voting Systems, the company whose equipment is used in Antrim, issued a statement saying it is the subject of a "continuing malicious and widespread disinformation campaign" intended to undermine confidence in the Nov. 3 election. Judge Kevin Elsenheimer of Michigan's 13th Circuit Court ordered the release of the report Monday, following minor redactions of references to software coding that were agreed to by both sides. State and county officials withdrew earlier objections to the report's release. The report is signed by Russell Ramsland of Allied Security Operations Group. Ramsland, a cybersecurity analyst and former Republican congressional candidate, mistook voting jurisdictions in Minnesota for Michigan towns in one recent flawed analysis of voter turnout in the Nov. 3 election. In another, filed in support of a federal lawsuit filed in Michigan, he made wildly inaccurate claims about voter turnout in various Michigan municipalities claiming that Detroit, where turnout was 51%, had turnout of 139%, and that North Muskegon, which had turnout of 78%, had voter turnout of 782%.

Full Article: State, company officials dispute report on Antrim County voting

Michigan Republican leaders affirm state’s electoral votes and reprimand lawmaker who suggested there might be violence. | Sydney Ember, Kathleen Gray and Glenn Thrush/The New York Times

The two most senior leaders in the Michigan legislature, both Republicans, on Monday affirmed the state’s electoral votes that would formalize Joseph R. Biden’s victory, as a fellow lawmaker was punished for suggesting there may be violence at the meeting of electors. In blistering terms, House Speaker Lee Chatfield wrote that he “can’t fathom risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution retroactively changing the electors for Trump, simply because some think there may have been enough widespread fraud to give him the win,” describing such a move as “unprecedented for good reason.” “That’s why there is not enough support in the House to cast a new slate of electors,” he added. “I fear we’d lose our country forever. This truly would bring mutually assured destruction for every future election in regards to the Electoral College. And I can’t stand for that. I won’t.” Last month, Mr. Chatfield and Mike Shirkey, the state Senate majority leader, were both summoned by President Trump to the White House in a bid to get lawmakers to substitute their own slate of electors. The two men, both rumored to be interested in higher office, went through with the visit but rebuffed Mr. Trump’s request. Mr. Biden won Michigan by about 150,000 votes, a much greater margin than in the other most hotly contested battlegrounds. The electors upheld those results on Monday afternoon.

Full Article: Michigan Republican leaders affirm state’s electoral votes and reprimand lawmaker who suggested there might be violence. - The New York Times

Michigan: Judge to conduct hearing on whether to lift protective order, release Antrim County results | Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press

A judge is expected to hold a hearing Monday morning on a lawyer’s request to lift a protective order shielding the results of a court-ordered examination of voting equipment in Antrim County — a county that President Donald Trump easily won, but where his legal team is alleging irregularities.Portage attorney Matthew DePerno filed an emergency motion Friday with 13th Circuit Judge Kevin Elsenheimer, claiming he has "received initial preliminary results which are important for the public, the U.S. government and the Michigan Legislature to review and understand," and are "an issue of national security." It's the latest bizarre twist in a saga that began with an election night error in how the county compiled and reported its unofficial election results. County Clerk Sheryl Guy, a Republican, has claimed responsibility for an error that resulted in Democrat Joe Biden initially appearing to have won the northern Michigan County. State and county officials and an election security expert from the University of Michigan have all said the Dominion Voting Systems tabulators and related election software in Antrim functioned the way it should have. But Guy made a mistake when she updated ballot information in Antrim after learning the name of a candidate in one township had been omitted. Because she updated information only in the one affected township, instead of updating the information in all precincts across the county, there was a mismatch when results from various precincts were combined to compile the unofficial results, causing numbers to be transposed and reported inaccurately, officials have said. The results were corrected during the county canvass, conducted by two Republican and two Democratic board members, and the official county results show Trump defeating Biden by nearly 4,000 votes, with just over 16,000 votes cast for president. But DePerno, who has said he is not working for but is "happy to cooperate" with the Trump campaign, has claimed in court filings that the tabulators are compromised.

Full Article: Lawyer to judge: Release results of voting equipment exam in Antrim

Michigan: Trump backers want Supreme Court to review another election case | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

Six of President Donald Trump's supporters in Michigan want the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their case to overturn the state's election results based on conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims of fraud. It's an attempt that's unlikely to succeed, according to other lawyers involved the matter. On Friday night, the nation's high court denied a lawsuit championed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who hoped to challenge the results in four battleground states, including Michigan, that voted for President-elect Joe Biden. The Supreme Court said Paxton lacked standing to bring his case, which focused on the states' election laws. Also on Friday night, attorneys representing six Michigan residents informed the defendants in a separate case that they intended to seek an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their claims against the state's election. The case in question involves President Donald Trump supporter and conservative attorney Sidney Powell. She originally brought the litigation in Michigan's Eastern District on behalf of three individuals who would have been presidential electors for Trump and three local GOP officials.

Full Article: Trump backers want Supreme Court to review Michigan election case

Michigan Attorney General says Texas ‘has no standing to disenfranchise’ millions of voters | Zach Budryk/The Hill

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) blasted a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the presidential election in four states, calling it “outrageous.”Nessel called the lawsuit “really one of the more outrageous that we’ve ever seen in the United States,” adding “Texas has no standing to disenfranchise the 5.5 million voters in the state of Michigan … there’s been no injury that’s been demonstrated to the state of Texas.”She noted that the results of the election in Michigan have already been certified, that challenges to the result have repeatedly lost in court and that “Texas has failed to identify a single voter who voted in Michigan who should not have.”“It’s outrageous that they filed this and the fact that they would try to disenfranchise the 39 million people that live in these four states,” Nessel told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “It’s really disturbing.” The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the results in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin.Nessel took aim at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and the other state attorneys general who have signed onto the lawsuit, saying that as attorney general, “I took an oath to uphold the Michigan constitution and the United States constitution to the best of my ability, so help me God.”

Full Article: Michigan AG says Texas 'has no standing to disenfranchise' millions of voters | TheHill

Michigan Secretary of State Benson to audit results of state, 200 jurisdictions including Wayne, Antrim counties | Beth LeBlanc/The Detroit News

The Michigan Bureau of Elections will conduct a raft of audits in the coming weeks, including reviews at the state level, in Antrim and Wayne counties, and in 200 other jurisdictions. The undertaking is the "most comprehensive post-election audits of any election in state history," the bureau said Wednesday.  The preliminary plans come after more than a month of lawsuits, press conferences, committee hearings and protests questioning Michigan's election results, which placed President-elect Joe Biden 154,000 votes ahead of President Donald Trump. Post-election audits are common, but those announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson are more than have ever been conducted before in an effort to demonstrate "the integrity of our election." “Clerks across the state carried out an extremely successful election amidst the challenges created by record-breaking turnout and more than double the absentee ballots ever before cast in our state, a global pandemic and the failure of the Michigan Legislature to provide more than 10 hours for pre-processing of absentee ballots,” Benson said in a statement.

Full Article: Benson to conduct statewide audits, plus ones in Wayne, Antrim counties

Michigan moves to intervene in Antrim County lawsuit alleging voter fraud | Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson filed an emergency motion Wednesday to intervene in a lawsuit alleging fraud in Antrim County, as the small GOP stronghold in northern Michigan is emerging as a last hope for allies of President Donald Trump seeking to cast doubts on the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election. As chief election officer, Benson is concerned about allegations in the lawsuit that the county's election results were "somehow influenced by fraud or the purported rigging of the ... tabulators," Assistant Attorney General Heather Meingast said in a Tuesday email to an attorney pursuing the lawsuit. A hearing on the motion is set for 3 p.m. Thursday. If the judge grants approval, it would give Benson a seat at the table, through the Attorney General's Office, to scrutinize the claims more closely and defend the actions of state and local election officials and the election equipment they use. Well-publicized errors in the unofficial election results Antrim County sent to the state of Michigan on election night made it appear that Democrat Joe Biden received more votes than Trump, when in fact Trump had won the county by nearly 4,000 votes. The errors were corrected and Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy, a Republican, took responsibility. According to a court filing, Guy made an error Oct. 23 when she updated ballot information to include a Mancelona Township candidate who had been inadvertently omitted from the ballot.

Full Article: State wants to intervene in Antrim suit alleging vote fraud

Michigan Supreme Court, in 4-3 decision, rejects election fraud case | Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press

The Michigan Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, denied requests from two voters who backed President Donald Trump and sought an election audit and other actions to address alleged fraud related to absentee ballots. Angelic Johnson and Linda Lee Tarver, both members of Black Voices for Trump, petitioned the state Supreme Court directly on Nov. 26. They sought a range of court actions, in addition to an audit, including: a declaration that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson had violated their constitutional rights; seizure of ballots, ballot boxes and poll books; appointment of a special master or legislative committee to investigate claims of fraud related to the counting of absentee ballots at the TCF Center in Detroit, and an injunction preventing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from certifying Michigan's presidential election results, which has already happened. The three Democratic-nominated justices — Chief Justice Bridget McCormack and Justices Richard Bernstein and Megan Cavanagh — were joined by Republican nominee Elizabeth Clement in denying the requested actions without first hearing oral arguments. Justices Brian Zahra, David Viviano and Stephen Markman dissented, saying the court should call for additional briefings and oral arguments and hear the case fully on an expedited basis. Clement, in concurring with the majority on the court, wrote that some areas of Michigan law remain unsettled surrounding elections, audits and what actions can be taken by those who believe a statewide presidential election has been wrongly decided. However, "this court routinely chooses not to hear cases which raise interesting and unsettled legal questions in the abstract when we conclude the case would be a poor practical vehicle for addressing those questions — which is my view of this case and these questions," Clement wrote.

Full Article: Michigan Supreme Court, in 4-3 decision, rejects election fraud case