Michigan GOP Senate Leader Calls for Independent Audit After ‘Reprehensible’ Irregularities

A worker with the Detroit Department of Elections reaches for an absentee ballot at the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 4, 2020. Elaine Cromie/Getty Images

Michigan’s Republican state Senate leader accused officials in a Detroit voting center of using “reprehensible” tactics on Election Day, calling for a full and independent audit of the vote count.

Aric Nesbitt, the president pro tempore of the Michigan Senate, said his wife was at the voting center on Nov. 3. Citing his wife’s account, Nesbitt said that election workers were refusing to count ballots when GOP poll observers were watching the process, and they would only count when Democrats were around.

He furthermore claimed that they allowed three times as many Democrats as Republicans to watch polls.

“Whenever they removed a Republican attorney, or Republican poll observer, the election workers were cheering,” Nesbitt told Just The News, describing the scenario. “They were being kicked out of the room for things like adjusting their face mask or accidentally brushing up against some other folks.”

More than two weeks after Election Day, Nesbitt said GOP officials have not received much information. “My colleagues and I are calling for a full audit of the process to try to figure out what actually went wrong,” he said.

Wayne County has not yet responded to a request for comment about Nesbitt’s claims.

In a bid to highlight alleged irregularities in the state, Nesbitt re-posted a letter from Michigan GOP state Sen. Lana Theis that requested an independent audit of the state’s election results

“There are allegations of illegal and official intimidation with lawful election challengers and poll watchers” in Michigan, Theis wrote to the Secretary of State’s office, adding that more than 100 Michiganders have issued sworn affidavits about what they witnessed.

It came as two Wayne County Board of Canvassers, both Republicans, claimed they were pressured, harassed, and threatened after saying they would not vote to certify the county election results. The two later voted to certify the results but later signed affidavits to rescind their votes.

The move drew the attention of President Donald Trump. Monica Palmer, a Republican on the Board of Canvassers in Wayne County, said the president called her and “was checking in to make sure I was safe after hearing the threats and doxing that had occurred,” according to the Washington Post.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said she saw no evidence of voter fraud that would overturn the election results. The head of the Federal Elections Commission, Trey Trainor, cast doubt on official claims that there was no fraud, saying he believes “there was fraud” in key states.

Benson, meanwhile, accused Palmer and the other Republican of playing “partisan politics and caus[ing] confusion which, again, is kind of the norm that we’ve seen throughout this election.”