Michigan's 'dead' voters are quite alive

[struggle4progress]

November 11, 2020
Written by:Jonathan Oosting

LANSING — Donna Brydges is very much alive and playing cribbage with her husband in their home near Ludington. June Aiken of Napoleon Township is “alive and well” too — “quite well, in fact,” according to police. Same goes for William Bradley of Detroit, whose father of the same name died decades ago.

You wouldn't know it from social media, where supporters of President Donald Trump last week alleged voter fraud as they falsely claimed proof that Brydges, Aiken, Bradley and other Michiganders were dead but had cast ballots in the Nov. 3 election.

Like many false fraud claims that have spread online in the last week, officials say the accusations were triggered by a series of isolated data input errors by some of Michigan's 1,603 local and county election clerks.

In Michigan, clerks and their election workers enter voter and ballot information in a statewide database known as the Qualified Voter File. And yes, they occasionally make mistakes ...

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/dead-voter-cited-trump-lawsuit-never-cast-ballot-michigan-records-show

[struggle4progress]

1. Dead 'voter' cited in lawsuit never cast ballot

November 11, 2020
Written by:Jonathan Oosting

LANSING ... Trump's new federal lawsuit seeking to delay certification of Michigan election results includes a false claim that a dead person cast a ballot, according to the Department of State.

The complaint, which alleges dozens of improprieties during absentee ballot counting in Detroit, includes an affidavit from Anita Chase of Warren, who claimed she reviewed state records showing her deceased son had cast ballots in 2016 and 2020.

It’s the only assertion of a dead voter in the lawsuit, which was announced Tuesday and officially filed Wednesday in federal court. The Trump campaign submitted affidavits from more than 100 Detroit election challengers, claiming they were denied a “meaningful opportunity” to review ballot tabulation.

Rather than a dead voter, though, it appears to be a case of mistaken identity caused by confusion over "common names," said Tracy Wimmer, a spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office ...

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/dead-voter-cited-trump-lawsuit-never-cast-ballot-michigan-records-show

[struggle4progress]

2. Human error, Dominion voting equipment fuel false fraud claims

November 9, 2020
Written by:Jonathan Oosting, Madeline Halpert

LANSING — When Antrim County’s Republican clerk reported last week that Democrat Joe Biden had trounced President Donald Trump in the fiercely GOP region of northern Michigan, officials and experts correctly questioned what turned out to be a clerical mistake ...

The unsubstantiated allegation challenges the accuracy of Dominion Voting Systems equipment used in 69 of Michigan’s 83 counties and dozens of states, along with third-party software from ElectionSource of Grand Rapids, which the GOP has claimed is used in 47 Michigan counties ...

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson published a lengthy explanation of the Antrim incident Friday evening, describing it as “human error” caused by the county’s failure to update election management software it used to report unofficial results.

Dominion voting machines tallied the Antrim County votes correctly, but ElectionSource software used to combine the results from individual voting machines was not properly configured, according to Benson’s office ...

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/human-error-dominion-voting-equipment-fuel-false-fraud-claims-michigan

[struggle4progress]

3. Four partisans must certify Michigan's election

November 11, 2020
Written by:Jonathan Oosting

LANSING — As chairman of Michigan's 8th Congressional District Republican Committee, Norm Shinkle actively worked to re-elect President Donald Trump ...

Shinkle is a member of the Board of State Canvassers, a constitutionally created body that is intentionally partisan. The panel, appointed by the governor, is composed of two Democrats and two Republicans who cannot certify election results without bipartisan consensus in the form of at least a 3-1 majority vote ...

In the case of a 2-2 tie, legal experts say state courts would likely order the board to certify the Michigan election. In the unlikely event that doesn’t happen, Democrats fear the Republican-led Legislature could be put in position to decide how the state awards its 16 presidential electors ...

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/four-partisans-must-certify-michigans-election-one-makes-no-promises

[struggle4progress]

4. Five suits now target Michigan's election

November 12, 2020
Written by:Mike Wilkinson

... One new federal lawsuit, filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court in west Michigan on behalf of four Michigan voters, contains no original allegation and rehashes other lawsuits as well as tweets and blog posts. It seeks to eliminate all of the votes in Wayne, Washtenaw and Ingham counties ...

Already, judges across the state have knocked down two lawsuits. Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny denied one request to stall the certification, and a Michigan Court of Claims judge rejected an earlier request to halt the count because the suit was based on hearsay evidence and was unlikely to prevail ...

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/five-suits-now-target-michigans-election-one-seeks-toss-out-12m-votes