Michigan GOP Investigation Rejects GOP Claims Election Was Tainted

A report issued by the State Senate's Oversight Committee conclude Kraken claims are a myth.

An investigation into alleged voting irregularities in Michigan led by Republicans in the Michigan State Senate rejected claims from the election was somehow stolen, as various Trump-aligned figures had claimed.

From the Detroit Free Press report:

An investigation led by Michigan Republican lawmakers found no basis for claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election, a Michigan Senate report released Wednesday concludes.

The results of the inquiry by the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee, chaired by a Republican and comprised of a GOP majority, are the latest repudiation of conspiracies and lies revolving around Michigan's election results.

"The Committee found no evidence of widespread or systemic fraud in Michigan's prosecution of the 2020 election," the report states.

"Citizens should be confident the results represent the true results of the ballots cast by the people of Michigan."

The full report may be accessed here.

From the report's introduction:

This report contains findings and suggestions developed from 28 hours of testimony from almost 90 individuals spanning nine committee hearings, the review of thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents from multiple government entities, hundreds of hours of Senate staff investigation, and countless reviews of claims and concerns from Michigan residents. A detailed examination of all evidence presented to the Committee established an undeniable conclusion; while there are glaring issues that must be addressed in current Michigan election law, election security, and certain procedures, there is no evidence presented at this time to prove either significant acts of fraud or that an organized, wide-scale effort to commit fraudulent activity was perpetrated in order to subvert the will of Michigan voters.

From the conclusion:

The Committee can confidently assert that it has been thorough in examination of numerous allegations of unlawful actions, improper procedures, fraud, vote theft, or any other description which would cause citizens to doubt the integrity of Michigan's 2020 election results. Our clear finding is that citizens should be confident the results represent the true results of the ballots cast by the people of Michigan. The Committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain. We also conclude citizens should demand reasonable updates and reforms to close real vulnerabilities and unlawful activities that caused much of the doubt and questionability to flourish and could, if unchecked, be responsible for serious and disastrous fraud or confusion in the future.

Comments

[Krychek_2]

That and Rudy Guiliani got suspended this morning. Maybe this is the beginning of the end for the Trumpist conspiracy theorists.

[Snorkle]

Nah, they're just faking their own death in a jail cell.

[Bob from Ohio]

You can't end conspiracy theories by official actions. Official actions add fuel in fact.

[Krychek_2]

Bob, true, though sometimes official actions result in reducing the volume since people stop paying attention. There will always be those who, to their dying day, believe Trump won the election, and there's nothing to be done about it. But once they start being ignored, eventually the world goes on to other things.

[Sarcastr0]

Spreading conspiracy theories needn't be consequence free, though.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

No free swings. Consequences and accountability are important.

[NToJ]

You can't end them by unofficial actions, either. Conspiracy theories are just a symptom of the human condition. Nothing to be done but watch.

[Moderation4ever]

I think this goes along with a number of Arizona Republicans distancing themselves from the faux audit. The 2020 Election was one of the most scrutinized, it has held up under audits, recounts and court challenges and it appears it will hold up under continued scrutiny.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

If you are ready to switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic, Professor Adler -- and you would be a fine addition to the Democratic Party, adding scholarship, character, and practicality -- I am prepared to deliver a change-of-registration form to your office with a substantial volume of overdue, excellent beer.

If we time this endeavor deftly, you could be among my guests at a Rolling Stones concert at FirstEnergy Stadium. If you are in a hurry, we could schedule something at a Southside Johnny show at the Rocksino.

[DaveM]

Very good news. I am 100% in favor of doing these kinds of audits. Trust is all we have, and doing due diligence is essential.

[Kazinski]

I thought the state legislatures were the proper place to do election audits and investigations from the beginning, for a couple of reasons:
They are the ultimate authority on election laws and procedures.
They have the authority to investigate and audit government authorities in their state
While they maybe partisan they are not national party partisan and for the most part they don't have ambitions of higher national office.
They are more trusted than governors, secretary of states, the press, or anyone else that might undertake an investigation.

I also thought that while it wouldn't be too surprising if Arizona or Georgia found the margin of error/fraud was greater than the very slim margin of victory, it was very unlikely that enough states could change results to change the overall results.

And that the Kraken strategy cost the GOP the 2 Georgia Senate seats and was massive own goal.

[bernard11]

I think it's OK for the legislature to initiate an audit or recount, though I think they ought to have some basis for thinking there was a real problem with the procedures that were used. The impression I get from all the cries for audits is that the criers think the actual election consisted of poll workers walking around asking random people which candidate they preferred.

The election itself does follow certain procedures, cross-checks, whatever, so it's not like it's just a random process.

Finally, I do think we should take partisanship into account, and be cautious. For starters, I think any actual audit ought to be conducted by a major public accounting firm - not Cyber Ninjas or whoever.

If you want reasons, just look at the AZ clown show.

[Kazinski]

Have you seen the billing rates for major public accounting firms?

And they aren't really independent, they do too much business with the government, and major firms dependent on the government.

[Moderation4ever]

Well you can rely on the integrity of your neighbors who work the polls for about $15/hour, or you can hire an expensive firm who bills about $600/hour/staffer to check everything.

[Moderation4ever]

Well said.

Wisconsin has a Legislative Audit Bureau, I suspect that many other states do also. These are set up to non-partisan audits of state programs. They could certainly set up a non partisan audit of elections. The problem is that they don't really have the staff for such a large undertaking.

An auditing firm would likely be a better choice. Also note that the Michigan report and any audit does not really need to go back an count all the ballots. A real audit would likely look at the paper trail for the counting, make sure number add up, and procedures were followed. Much of this was done through interviews and document reviews.

I note that the Michigan report call for more training of election poll workers. I worked for Madison, Wisconsin and prior to every election I worked I was required to attend or review a training seminar for the up coming election. These are the kind of things that audits can really find and suggest improvements.

[Brett Bellmore]

More training, AND more transparency. Too many things happening out of sight, or informally, and too many instances of poll watchers not being permitted to witness things they were legally entitled to, even had a court order entitling them to watch.

Apparently there's a huge disconnect between what Democrats and Republicans think the rights of poll watchers are, and many of the Democratic poll watchers were there explicitly to prevent the Republican ones from exercising rights they really did legally have.

I guess that's what you get when one party is committed to the idea that poll watching is just voter intimidation.

[Moderation4ever]

Here is what I can tell you about poll watchers. They are there to observe. They can not confront voters or poll workers. If they have an issue they address it to the chief poll worker in charge of the site. This is not a D or R thing it is the rules.

Let me tell you a few other facts. Poll watching is the equivalent of being a swimming pool life guard, except you can't work on your tan. It is a very boring job. You sit and watch for 6 hours, 12 hours if you work a double shift. You are alert at start up and at take down, and the rest of the day is a grind. Most poll watchers I have observed bring a book and catch up on their reading.

[Brett Bellmore]

I've been a poll watcher myself, and am acquainted with what they can and can't do, (Though that varies from state to state.)

But when a party goes out and gets a court order dictating that they be allowed to stand someplace, and their poll watchers are barred from standing there anyway, you've got problems.

[ThePublius]

Speaking of Wisconsin:

"The now-retired elections clerk in a key Wisconsin county says political activists working for a group funded by Mark Zuckerberg money seized control of the November elections in Green Bay and other cities, sidelining career experts and making last-minute changes that may have violated state law."

https://247sports.com/college/west-virginia/board/103782/Contents/Wis-official-Zuckerberg-funded-group-seized-control-of-electio-166888165/

[Brett Bellmore]

I'm not living in Michigan anymore, so I really can't speak to what happened there beyond news reports.

But the Michigan GOP does have a history of, for want of a better word, Stockholm syndrome. We used to call them "Vichi Republicans". (Especially the Romneys!) So I'm not sure I'd take a report saying, in effect, "Nope, nothing we would have been complicit in if it had actually happened, actually happened."

Anyway, on to the details.

1) Deceased and non-residents voting.

Given their recommendations, it appears to me that they're not actually confident this isn't a genuine problem, though the scale of it hasn't been proven.

2) Unsolicited absent ballots and applications.

Yeah, actually happened, and was done using an obsolete voter list, too. They concluded there was a genuine vulnerability for fraud in this area, as they have no mechanism in place for actually detecting absentee voting in the name of people who have moved out of state. There was a court ruling saying the SoS could do this, but the legislature is not happy about it, and wants it stopped.

3) 3rd party/private funds used to pay for election activities.

They're not done investigating this.

4) Rights and duties of poll watchers.

They found clear evidence that a court settlement as to this had been violated.

5) Antrim county.

A great deal of the report deals with this. Election laws were violated, but apparently inadvertently, but the conspiracy theorists apparently deliberately misled people, too.

6) Hacking.

Also detailed, and yes, the claims seem to have been at best mistaken, at worst, fraudulent. But they do have problems with canvassing, especially in Wayne county. (That last is not news!)

7) Signature verification.

There were some mistaken claims here, but also some problems, and they see a need for reform on this front.

8) Claims of more than 100% turnout.

All were wrong.

9) Absentee ballots being tabulated multiple times.

This may have happened, but was in fact corrected before the totals were reported.

10) Ballot dumping.

Can't be proven, but there are serious problems with ballots being moved around at all hours of the night because of drop boxes not being unloaded at close of voting, and security/chain of custody issues with ballot transfers.

11) Unusual turnouts.

Doesn't seem to have happened, but, again, there are problems with Detroit being permitted to do things differently from the rest of the state. (A persistent issue in Michigan.)

12) Misc issues.

Various confusions.

13) Audits.

Greater transparency required.

Bottom line? They don't think the election was stolen, but there absolutely were things going on that shouldn't have, including failures to follow the law, and refusal to let poll watchers observe things they were entitled to.

They're probably going to recommend a bunch of reforms Democrats will call "voter suppression".

[NToJ]

"So I’m not sure I’d take a report saying..."

We're all really surprised, Brett.

[Brett Bellmore]

Yeah, they've got enough complicity in the mess to want to understate what a dumpster fire they had.

But it does appear that the more lurid conspiracy theories were false.

OTOH, it appears to be true that there are various real problems, some of which could have obscured fraud on a large enough scale to have thrown the outcome of a closer election.

And Detroit's election administration is a dumpster fire with an extra helping of flaming week old fish heads. But there's nothing new about THAT. There hasn't been a well administered election in Detroit in the memory of most Michiganians. (I see autocorrect has taken sides in the "Michiganian/Michigander" argument, BTW.)

[bevis the lumberjack]

Trump has begun the process of canceling the Republicans in charge of this effort. Can’t let any facts get into this discussion because they’ll demonstrate that he’s completely full of shit.

[Moderation4ever]

Sounds like that includes his kids. You know he is 74 and can spend his last years whinnying. The kids are young and still have a real life to live.

[sparkstable]

So someone says something wrong occurred. They know for a fact it happened and so the people telling they were wrong were either wrong themselves or lying.

Then someone doubles down with something bigger. The same nay-sayera come along instantly and demand everyone bend the knee to the idea of literally nothing happened. The first person to make a claim realizes these defenders of the election are now actively lying. So the first person says "Maybe the second person is right, too... given how my true claims were treates."

This spins out farther and farther. Now here we are and the official statement is "All the crazy stuff was just crazy stuff and didn't happen. The more sensible things? Totally happened... but don't worry about that because LITERALLY NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED!!! ANYONE WHO SAYS SO IS CRAZY!!!!!"

[David Nieporent]

Sure, hand counting every ballot

Well, not every ballot! Only the ones in jurisdictions that supported Biden.