Thread by @ChadLivengood

I got a little sidetracked yesterday with breaking news, phone interviews and Zoom meetings and apparently, according to some people, wasn't tweeting enough about Republicans not accepting the election results.

I interviewed GOP consultant @stusandler...

Thread continued...

Interview Sandler and @AdrianHemond for a Great Lakes Bay Economic Club about the election.

Sandler refused to concede @JohnJamesMI, one of his clients, lost.

"There are states where (Trump) is down by 2/10ths of a percentage point," Sandler said.

"Donald Trump was on his way to winning in a landslide before COVID hit," @stusandler said.

OK, but he didn't. Perhaps cause of his handling of COVID?

Stu acknowledged Trump may have been hurt in early absentee voting for not taking it seriously enough.

crainsdetroit.com/voices-chad-li…

I asked Stu Sandler, who is general counsel for @MIGOP and a strategist for @JohnJamesMI, about his now-deleted tweet declaring James as Michigan's first Black senator.

He acknowledged he jumped the gun and said the tweet should have said James was "about to" win.

Sandler said he made the premature victory declaration for @JohnJamesMI because @JocelynBenson said at a late morning press conference there were 100,000 more absentee votes to tabulate.

There ended up being nearly 250,000 more votes, Sandler said.

https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1324029234097098755

Does anyone have a timestamped screenshot of the vote count around 11 a.m. Wednesday in the presidential and U.S. Senate races?

https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1326161330420723713

Sandler on tweet: "I should not have been as definitive about it, but I was in a position where I thought John was about to win and I thought there was a little bit of chicanery going on. There was a lot of irregularities and we're still looking into it."

https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1326161330420723713

"I have not seen any evidence yet there was any sort of chicanery — to use Stu's word — going on. But I do think this presents us with an opportunity and hopefully something that can be bipartisan to tighten up our election procedures in Michigan," Dem consultant @AdrianHemond

Also during the Great Lakes Bay Region Economic Club meeting, @stusandler wanted to prosecute all of the pollsters who had Peters polling better than he did.

Peters won by 1.7 pts, within margin of error in several polls that had him +5, including GOPer @stevemitchell40's poll.

For all the hand-wringing from Republicans on about absentee ballots being counted all day Wednesday in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint and Kalamazoo, Republican clerks were warning them for months that's exactly what would happen.

crainsdetroit.com/crains-forum/5…

https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1326165300400754688?s=20

It's worth noting Colorado (2 time zones away) was all wrapped up w/ counting its predominately mail-in ballots on #ElectionNight. Clerks can start tabulating mail-in ballots up to 15 days before #ElectionDay.

A GOP Sec. of State designed this system.
crainsdetroit.com/crains-forum/t…

Also, adding to this thread @ZachGorchow's column on @GOPChairwoman taking Republican politics to a new low by accusing retired state elections director Chris Thomas of election fraud.

Thomas served THREE Republican secretaries of state over 22+ years.

gongwer.com/programming/bl…