(Scott McClallen, The Center Square) The Michigan Senate released a report, which concludes it “found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan’s prosecution of the 2020 election.”
Senate Oversight Chair Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, released the report Wednesday spanning nearly 30 hours of public hearings, 87 eyewitnesses, and more than 400 pages of testimony.
“At this point, I feel confident to assert the results of the Michigan election are accurately represented by the certified and audited results,” McBroom wrote.
McBroom debunked 13 common accusations about the election, including dead people voting, erroneous voting tabulators, Antrim county results, and incidents at the TCF Center in Detroit.
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The report said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and local clerks removed roughly 3,500 absentee ballots submitted by living voters who died before Election Day.
The report follows less than a week after hundreds of Republicans delivered 7,000 affidavits claiming election fraud and demanding a forensic audit, which McBroom wrote is “not justifiable” based on his findings.
McBroom recommended Attorney General Dana Nessel investigate Michiganders making “misleading and false information about Antrim County to raise money or publicity for their own ends.”
For example, a crowdfunding website claims attorney Matthew DePerno, who has led the charge in Antrim County, has raised $321,000 of a $1 million goal for an “Election Fraud Defense Fund.”
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McBroom described those people still promoting Antrim County conspiracies to steal the election as “in a position of zero credibility.”
However, McBroom recommended providing live audio and recording feeds of audits posted online, along with 11 other recommendations. Some align with 39 GOP voter bills McBroom says would secure vulnerabilities, such as recording dropboxes.
Benson responded with a statement issued by the Secretary of State office.
“The report confirms what 250 audits, numerous courts, countless election officials and the majority of Michiganders already know to be true: our 2020 election was secure and the results are accurate,” Benson said. “The report is only noteworthy because it affirms this truth and comes from a committee chaired by a Republican legislator, but the fact that this is the case, that so few legislators have definitively stated the truth about the 2020 election, says less about the report than it does the travesty and peril of our current democracy.”
Benson agreed with some report recommendations to increase time for pre-processing absentee ballots and post-election canvasses but said the report also contained “inaccuracies” that will likely be used to push GOP voting bills that she deems voter suppression.
“My hope is that lawmakers and leaders change course and use the report as rationale to do what they should have done long ago: affirm the security and integrity of our elections, cease their attempts to deceive citizens with misinformation, and abandon legislation based on the lies that undermine our democracy,” Benson said.
Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, criticized Republicans for taking so long to arrive at the conclusion.
“Finally arriving at a conclusion that the rest of the nation reached on November 7, 2020 will not earn any praise from me,” Ananich said in a statement.
“For months, the Republican majority has given extremists a platform and a megaphone to spout unfounded, insidious lies about the election. They have allowed their values, their words, and their committees to be co-opted by a small group of vocal dissidents who could not – and still cannot – come to grips with the fact that their candidate lost. We can’t turn back the clock now, but I do expect that history will not forget how failing to stand up for the truth created lasting damage in this country.”…Original Source…
