Elections
Ronna McDaniel alleges backdating of Michigan ballots
Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, made various allegations of election irregularities in Michigan at a Friday afternoon press conference but provided no evidence to back up the allegations.
Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, made various allegations of election irregularities and misconduct in Michigan at a Friday afternoon press conference. Among the allegations she made, one of the biggest ones was that election workers in Detroit backdated ballots to make it appear that they were received after Election Day.
Former Vice President Joe Biden currently holds a 146,600-vote lead over President Donald Trump in the state, Politico reports.
McDaniel’s claimed that a whistleblower said that some of the workers at the TCF Center in Detroit were instructed by a former director of state elections, Chris Thomas, to “backdate” absentee ballots. In Michigan, in order for a ballot to be considered valid, it had to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Thomas, however, fired back at her claim in a statement, The Detroit Free Press reports.
“In the heat of the moment responsible officials should avoid denigrating the election process without verifying their information,” he said.
“None of these ballots were received after 8 p.m. on election day. Most were received on Monday, November 2nd – the busiest day for the satellite offices,” Thomas also said.
According to Thomas, workers at voting sites in Detroit forget to input the date a ballot was received into the qualified voter file, which is Michigan’s election computer system. Additionally, Thomas said, the actual ballots were stamped with the date they were received, however, and that the issue was a clerical error.
“This issue was discussed with several Republican challengers,” he added. “Two challengers were provided demonstration of the QVF process and they chose not to file a challenge to the individual ballots.”
McDaniel at the conference also stated that these allegations have been referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern Michigan and that they warrant an investigation.
“It needs to be pursued, not just by Republicans but also by Democrats. Because if we are going to come out of this and say this was a fair and free election, what we are hearing from the city of Detroit is deeply troubling,” McDaniel said.
“So we are going to pursue this,” she added. “You know, the media, Joe Biden, have all said be patient. We should all be patient. But we should also be patient as we pursue these irregularities.”
McDaniel did not indicate whether or not the Republican Party would file a lawsuit in Michigan based on these allegations.
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.
On June 20, Special Counsel John Durham will testify appear before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door briefing. The next day, he will testify in front of the Judiciary Committee about his 300-page reportdetailing his investigation into the FBI probe of alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian officials.
The news broke Friday that Durham will be testifying on the report, which found the Department of Justice and the FBI did not have “any actual evidence of collusion” between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Instead, the agencies began their Crossfire Hurricane investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence,” the report said. “Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report,” Durham wrote.
The report also confirmed that the FBI did not give due consideration to the possibility that the Steele Dossier, which was used to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page, was Russian disinformation.
FBI leaders displayed “serious lack of analytical rigor,” according to Durham, and they relied significantly on. “investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents,” referring to staffers and allies of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose campaign funded the Steele dossier through its law firm Perkins Coie.
National Review reminds readers, “The dossier was created by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and accused Trump and his campaign aides of collaborating with Kremlin officials.”
Durham released his report nearly four years after then-attorney general Bill Barr tasked him with investigation the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
The FBI responded to the report in saying that the “conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time.”
“Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the bureau said. “This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect.”
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