John James. the GOP rising star in Michigan, appeared on Wednesday morning to have a clear lead over Democratic incumbent Senator Gary Peters.
But by Thursday morning, that narrow lead had turned into an 80,000 vote deficit after some middle-of-the-night maneuvers by the notorious ballot counters at the TCF Center in Detroit.
These guys don’t like Republicans very much. They kept GOP observers more than 100 feet away from the ballot counting until Trump’s campaign sued them to allow access. They let the observers come closer — but then they moved the counting tables back.
The James campaign is alarmed at what they’re seeing.
Stuart Sandler, a consultant for James’ campaign who was on the ground, told Fox News that the campaign is concerned about there being “a lot of irregularities.” He said James’ victory looked sealed until ballots started pouring in during the middle of the night.
“There were all kinds of chicanery, including ballots that came in reportedly in the middle of the night at 3:30 a.m. – 35,000 ballots that were deceptively brought in,” Sandler said. “There have been a lot of irregularities and a lack of integrity. They’re not letting challengers in, they’re not letting them get food or water. When they do, they’re not letting them come back. There’s all sorts of disruptions to the process.”
Kind of makes a mockery of the Democrats’ “count all the votes” battle cry.
One thing I’ve learned about this election: don’t trust partisans of either party to explain what’s happening. Michigan is a good example. Neither side is being truthful. They are delivering talking points to their supporters, not imparting information.
Are ballots really being delivered in the “middle of the night”? It certainly doesn’t help the Democrats’ transparency argument when they deliberately try to shut out opposition observers. But the ballots were “reportedly” delivered at 3:30 a.m. Who reported it? Is it a source to be trusted? Or is it just some partisan hack with a Twitter account?
I guess we all have to decide who’s being truthful and who is trying to hide something.
When it became apparent that James was in the lead last night, Sandler alleged Mark Brewer, a former state Democratic chairman, brought several busloads of lawyers and activists in TCF, “to disrupt the process.”
“There’s a lack of integrity there. The people of Michigan made their choice and they’ve been trying to disrupt the process. And we’re reviewing our options,” Sandler said.
Mr. Brewer was probably being honest and accurate when he claims “This is the best absentee ballot counting operation that Detroit has ever had.” Given that Detroit routinely goes Democrat by upwards of 90 percent, I don’t think it’s anything to be proud of.
What’s happening at TCF Center needs to be investigated by independent observers. If this kind of thing is truly happening, someone has to be held accountable.
Michigan’s Secretary of State previously said she was expecting 2.5 million absentee ballots. By Wednesday morning, however, that total — the source alleged — increased to 5.6 million, with the majority going up in places like Detroit.
“And then the Wayne County Clerk (Cathy M. Garrett) … was on CNN this morning, and she didn’t know how many votes were left in Wayne County, which is where Detroit is,” the source claimed. “(Garrett) said multiple different low numbers and CNN even called her out on it.”
Is it incompetence that the county clerk doesn’t know how many votes are left to be counted? Or stupidity? Of course she knows how many votes are left to be counted. It’s her job to know. But stupidity should never be equated with fraud.
Less partisan observers told another story about what was happening in the arena.
Members of both parties were present and monitoring the ballot count in Detroit. Election officials can limit the number of poll watchers and challengers in a space and eject anybody causing problems, and some were escorted out or prevented from entering the TCF Center — although there were dozens of Democratic and Republican challengers still inside as absentee votes were tabulated.
Crowds of election challengers gathered at the TCF Center in Detroit Wednesday to observe absentee ballot counting. When some weren’t allowed in due to capacity constraints, chants of “Stop the count,” erupted, echoing the demands of a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign Wednesday to halt the ballot counting process.
The perception may be far worse than the reality of what’s actually happening on the ground in the arena. This is why we need an independent commission to investigate. When a judge orders Democrats to allow GOP observers to more closely inspect the ballots, there is some truth to the allegations. Others, we don’t know.
And since Democrats refuse to be transparent about the vote count, someone — the courts — is going to have to force them.
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