In a follow-up to warnings about election misinformation and disinformation in Michigan, we are now experiencing both as Michigan’s vote count comes to an end.
Manufactured Outrage - Biden is not magically finding votes
One of the latest reports of manufactured outrage, turns out to have been promulgated on Twitter by the chair of Texas' Travis County Republican Party Matt Mackowiak [see “No, Joe Biden did not magically 'find' votes in Michigan” by Clara Hendrickson and Kristi Tanner from the Detroit Free Press, 11/4/2020]
From the Detroit Free Press:
“A since deleted tweet posted by Matt Mackowiak, a conservative commentator and chair of Texas' Travis County Republican Party, appears to show that during one results update in Michigan, Joe Biden received 100% of newly counted votes. Attached to the tweet were two election maps appearing to show election results from earlier in the count and one from later. Mackowiak said he took the screenshots early this morning. Mackowiak acknowledged the posts were inaccurate. He has since deleted the tweet, explaining, 'I have now learned the MI update referenced was a typo in one county.'"
Giving credit where it is due, the Texas official deleted his tweet when he learned that it was based on a quickly corrected clerical error, but not before President Trump retweeted the misinformation to his millions of followers.
The maps shared by Mackowiak came from Decision Desk HQ, an election data company. The data company corrected a tweet posted with the false information and explained the mistake:
"'This morning there was a clerical error in the Shiawassee, MI county presidential data.' The company explained, 'Once we identified the error, we cleared the erroneous data and updated it with the correct data as provided by officials. We stand by our data as reflected on results.decisiondeskhq.com.'"
Also from the article, “An hour-by-hour update from Associated Press data shows that there was no point in time when Trump did not post an increase in votes.”
Chaos at the TCF vote counting center in Detroit
In another account of election confusion, “Chaos erupts at TCF Center as Republican vote challengers cry foul in Detroit” by Tresa Baldas, Kristen Jordan Shamus, Niraj Warikoo, and Evan Petzold, from the Detroit Free Press,11/04/2020:
“A chaotic scene erupted outside the vote tally room at TCF Center in Detroit on Wednesday as election officials informed dozens of challengers that they could not reenter the room due to it being at capacity.
“People gathered outside the ballot-counting area pounded on the doors and windows, shouting, “Let us in” and “Stop the count” as only about a half-dozen tables continued to count ballots on the day after Election Day.
“Police had to push back the crowds as they argued to be allowed in the vote-counting area. Republican counters shouted that they were unfairly being kept out, but Democratic challengers countered that it was not true because they were also being kept outside.”
The situation was exacerbated by Covid restrictions on the number of people who could be in the counting center at one time. Officials were letting 134 people from each of three groups contesting the vote, Republicans, Democrats, and non-partisan challengers. “But early on Wednesday, about 400 challengers were freely roaming the room as poll workers counted the 25,000 absentee ballots from Detroiters.”
Vote counters were concerned about intimidation with people taking pictures of them and the counting process. Some of the challengers were falsely telling vote counters they had to stop counting because a lawsuit had been filed by the Republicans, but there had been no injunction to stop counting nor was there any reason to believe that the counters were engaged in voter or election fraud.
“Several lawyers asserted that the trouble started when GOP challengers tried to intimidate poll workers. And they were removed because they either took their masks off, got too close to the poll counters, tried to take pictures or got verbally aggressive.”
The confusion created by swarms of people descending on the TCF Center in Detroit during the counting of votes makes it difficult to sort out exactly what was happening and to whom. But anyone claiming to see a conspiracy in all this for massive voter or election fraud should have to watch the video below of the Livonia, Michigan, City Clerk Susan Nash as she demonstrates what happens when mailed absentee ballots arrive at city hall.
In my experience, local election officials in Michigan who are in charge of guarding against voter and election fraud are the nerdiest of upright citizens, determined to follow the rules in a fair, balanced, and transparent process that should be reassuring to the rest of us that the processing of absentee or mail-in ballots is in good hands.
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