Thread by @Dave_Boucher1

The Michigan Senate Oversight Committee hearing is about to get underway. It'll focus on absentee vote counting at TCF Center in Detroit.
- A preview of the hearing: freep.com/story/news/pol…
- And a @freep account of what occurred at TCF freep.com/story/news/loc…

Hearing underway. Committee Chairman McBroom says testimony will focus on those who have first-hand knowledge of what occurred at TCF. Each person testifying will only have 3 minutes.

But, McBroom says former state Sen. Colbeck will have more than 3 minutes to testify today

Colbeck now testifying, saying there's lots of evidence of misconduct. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has previously said Colbeck has not presented any evidence of fraud to her office.

Here's a slide Colbeck is presenting to the Senate committee hearing.

He's alleging there was an irregular number of votes somewhere, alluding to issues with voting machines.

This has been refuted and debunked. freep.com/story/news/pol…

Colbeck also repeats the debunked statement that vote counts were "dumped," falsely conflating the time vote totals were reported with the time ballots were tabulated.

Jurisdictions did not report vote totals in real time.

Colbeck now discussing "chain of custody" for tabulation machines in Detroit. Colbeck says he was never provided information about this chain of custody. But he doesn't provide any information to show how this alleged problem led to any verifiable cases of fraud or misconduct

Colbeck now saying he's sure election machines at TCF were connected to Internet, because he said he saw ethernet cables and saw on "every" monitor that computers were connected to Internet.

He's implying connection may mean fraud. But presenting *zero evidence* of fraud

Colbeck says they have evidence. He's not presenting it at this hearing, or at least he hasn't yet.

Now Colbeck is referencing the lawsuit filed by Sidney Powell. Powell, attorney disavowed by Trump campaign, says software crafted by confederates of deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez helped further a massive international conspiracy against Trump freep.com/story/news/pol…

Colbeck says lawmakers only have two choices: there is significant evidence of voter fraud "or there is an attempted coup."

Sen. Peter Lucido, an ardent Trump supporter, now asking Colbeck questions.

"I appreciate your analysis, but I'd like to get to what I call substantive issues."

Asks Colbeck what offer of proof he has.

After Colbeck references Antrim County, Lucido notes the clerk for the county testified recently there was human error that led to the errors locally. freep.com/story/news/pol…

Colbeck says the burden of proof is on the Secretary of State and the state board of canvassers to assert "chain of custody" re: tabulation machines.

Sec. Benson already said the election process was fair and accurate. Board recently certified results

After Senate Oversight Committee Chairman Ed McBroom said today's hearing would focus on vote counting at TCF Center in Detroit, and rely on first-hand accounts only, Colbeck and the committee have focused on problems in Antrim County

Again, Colbeck focusing on Dominion Voting Systems. Republicans and Democrats across the county have said the system works.

Colbeck and others are arguing someone used the system to hurt Trump, but nothing untoward happened to help other Republicans down ballot?

McBroom: "How do we move from what's possible to what actually happened?"

This question to Colbeck notes that there hasn't actually been evidence of fraud presented at today's hearing

Colbeck arguing someone would tweak the physical ballot totals to match those numbers recorded through a ballot computer system that was doctored.

There's no evidence this happened

Colbeck says he's "reached out" to the US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said, recently, that he has not provided any evidence of fraud to her office.

Sen. Irwin, a Democrat, now speaking.

Irwin: Why weren't recounts requested?

Colbeck: "I have doubts about the recount process." He's now referencing 2016 recount; the GOP-led Legislature has changed the recount process since then freep.com/story/news/pol…

Colbeck acknowledges a county canvass is essentially an audit. But he wanted a "forensic audit" of Wayne County.

As noted earlier, this hearing has most definitely not focused on TCF Center or absentee ballot counting in Detroit.

Irwin: All we have here is conjecture and musings from Sen. Colbeck.

Colbeck ignores the statement, repeats misleading information that *still* isn't evidence of fraud.

Colbeck is speaking at a legislative hearing that is garnering national attention. This is a prime venue to present evidence of voter fraud.

Hasn't happened yet.

Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, speaking now. She notes that a meeting involving the election leaders from the city of Detroit that Colbeck did not attend likely addressed many of the issues Colbeck is alleging today

It's also worth noting that a Michigan legislative hearing that purportedly focuses on election operations in Detroit *did not start* with testimony from any election official who works for or is affiliated with the city of Detroit.

Instead, opens w/testimony of Trump supporter

Colbeck is done. Everyone else gets 3 minutes to testify.

In the meantime, more on that lawsuit filed in Michigan recently by Sidney Powell, as reported by @mnisakhan freep.com/story/news/loc…

First person up: Phil O'Halloran. He says he was a Republican challenger at TCF and he's "speaking under oath." (He's not.)

O'Halloran said he and others tracked the transportation of ballots in Detroit. They didn't see people with clipboards or transfer paperwork, he says

O'Halloran: Someone was seen carrying blank ballots.

Unclear when O'Halloran says he or someone else saw this. Again, this isn't evidence of fraud.

Says many people drove cars to TCF with out-of-state plates that "did not appear to be rental"

Unclear what he's trying to say

O'Halloran says he asked a SWAT member at TCF to search a truck for ballots. He has no evidence the truck had ballots.

Sen. Lucido is trying to get O'Halloran to provide the names and contact information for anyone who saw something that they believe was inappropriate.

Lucido says O'Halloran providing "compounded testimony." Sounds like he's saying O'Halloran is providing hearsay

Next speaker: A woman name Patty (I'm sorry, I missed her last name).

She's printed out affidavits from people who worked at TCF. We wrote about those affidavits here: freep.com/story/news/pol…

Patty says she worked at TCF. Like many other challengers, she says election workers obstructed or otherwise prevented GOP challengers from viewing the tabulation process.

Many at TCF argue GOP challengers ignored COVID-19 regulations freep.com/story/news/loc…

Patty: Republican poll workers had to go upstairs to get lunch. Says she left TCF at some point to get food, and although she was initially locked out, she was let back in.

Still no evidence presented of fraud

Patty argues that military ballots for voters in Detroit were all for Biden and alleged birthdates were inaccurate.

Elections officials have repeatedly addressed this birthdate issue. And Detroit is a Democratic stronghold freep.com/story/news/pol…

Next speaker: Rhonda Webber (not sure on spelling).

Webber says she was "asked to provide surveillance" at the Detroit Department of Elections. No idea what that means, or who asked her to do this.

Webber says she followed and photographed a car that she says had ballots.

Sounds like she's alleging someone brought ballots to TCF after the deadline for ballots to be submitted.

Next speaker: Jack Stern (again, not sure on spelling).

Stern says what he heard -- through second-hand sources -- about what happened at TCF are bad.

Unclear if he was actually at TCF

We're about 75 minutes in to this hearing on absentee vote counting on TCF. We've definitely heard a couple allegations of misconduct at TCF.

But the vast majority of the hearing has focused on broad/general statements or speculation that something inappropriate occurred

The last speaker provided no information about anything that happened at TCF.

Next speaker: Glenn Sitek (again, unsure of spelling).

Says he worked more than 40 hours at TCF. Says not enough GOP challengers at TCF and officials knew this.

Sounds like implying officials either did not do enough or prevented GOP from working at TCF. No evidence of this

Speaker is reiterating many of the allegations included in affidavits filed with (withdrawn) Trump lawsuit. Arguing GOP denied access to watch tabulating process.

Next speaker: Patty (missed last name). She didn't work at TCF, so she said she's decided not to speak today.

Next speaker: Lori Levi. She says she was at TCF as a challenger.

She says poll workers were "literally screaming at her" to get back 6 feet. She says at no time could she physically see the ballot; asked to watch an electronic screen, but they were asked to stand too far away

Levi says it was very difficult to verify the name and address from a ballot in the poll book if they had to stand a long way away from the ballot and screen showing the ballot.

At times though, Levi said she did challenge some ballots. Unclear how she saw these, but not others

Levi said she did her own investigation, and was only able to verify the address of one voter.

Sounds like she looked through public records to track down individual voters?

Next speaker: Chris Shornack (sp?). He says he was a poll challenger on Nov. 3 and 4. Says he was a poll challenger on Tuesday in Royal Oak. That's not TCF; says Royal Oak ran their absentee ballot counting board "perfectly."

But said he did work at TCF as well

Shornack says he has evidence dead people cast ballots in Detroit.

These allegations have been debunked by us and others One story: freep.com/story/news/loc…

And a second story: freep.com/story/news/pol…

Sharnock argues 239 of roughly 30,000 absentee ballots in Detroit were cast by people who died.

He acknowledges roughly 174K absentee ballots cast in Detroit.

Sen. Lucido asks if he's presented this information to prosecutors. Sharnock says he hasn't done that yet but will

Next speaker says she was a non-partisan poll challenger at TCF Center. Says "hundreds" of workers at tables at TCF began duplicating ballots. Unclear what she's referencing.

"Ballots were being duplicated en mass by three Democrat poll workers at a time."

No evidence of this

Speaker says there were things that were unlawful and should not have happened.

She hasn't presented any evidence of this; Chris Thomas, who helped oversee the election, said a lack of understanding about elections process is at the heart of many misunderstandings

Sen. Santana wants to ask Charnock another question.

She notes Trump earned about 5,000 more votes in 2020 than 2016. She asks how Charnock could validate fraud allegations of of Detroit, even though results mirror past results.

Charnock just reiterates what he says is evidence of 239 dead people voting.

Unclear what his evidence is.

Next speaker says she was also poll challenger at TCF. She said she saw ballot that had marked a straight-ticket vote for Democrats and Republicans.

She says the worker says the vote should be cast for the Democrats. Speaker says she challenged, but the challenge was overruled

Speaker says workers screamed at her and awarded ballots to Democrats inappropriately.

Says she saw ballots show up "in the middle of the night." Unclear what that means.

Speaker says it's "foolhardy" to expect Secretary of State Benson or AG Nessel to investigate allegations of misconduct.

Also, first reference of "banana republic." Speaker asks why lawmakers think so many people don't vote. A record 5.5 million Michiganders did vote this year

Speaker says she has submitted an affidavit to attorneys with the Trump campaign.

Only lawsuit from Trump campaign that had 100+ affidavits from poll challengers was withdrawn by the campaign freep.com/story/news/pol…

Next speaker: Wayne County Board of Canvassers Chair Monica Palmer. She was one of two GOP members who initially declined to vote to certify Wayne County results, but ultimately did vote to certify

Palmer says lawmakers should examine ballot adjudication process, specifically adding funding and equipment that could speed up the process

Sen. Lucido: Did you take any photographs of ballot boxes that you say were inappropriate? Did you submit them to law enforcement?

Palmer: Says she will send them to the Legislature, doesn't say if she provided any details to prosecutors or law enforcement

We're about 2-hours in to this hearing. We haven't heard from any Detroit employees or poll challengers who didn't think something inappropriate occurred at TCF.

We haven't heard from very many challengers who live in Detroit, either. Many have said they live outside the city

Next speaker says she was a poll challenger at TCF. Another challenger references issues with birthdate of Jan. 1, 1900.

Chris Thomas and others have said this is a placeholder birthdate needed if a pollworker doesn't immediately have a voter's birthdate

Speaker says she was never provided an explanation about the birthdates.

Here's an explanation, from Thomas, as submitted in an affidavit in connection to a lawsuit filed by Trump supporters freep.com/story/news/loc…

Also, at roughly 2-hour mark, we've had almost no refutation of any statements made by poll challengers today.

Chairman McBroom, Sen. Lucido and others have asked questions, but there has been very little pushback on any information that is inaccurate

The next speaker just removed a mask that appeared to have Lucido's name on it.

Lucido successfully ran for prosecutor in Macomb County this year.

Speaker is one of several who said they applied to work at an absentee counting board in Detroit and had to follow up with city to work on Election Day.

Never back from anyone, so he volunteered to work as a poll challenger.

Detroit said it had 6,000+ election workers

Speaker reading from an affidavit he said he provided to a Republican in Michigan.

The Trump campaign withdraw it's lawsuit that included these affidavits, arguing -- incorrectly -- Wayne County refused to certify results freep.com/story/news/pol…

Next speaker also says she was a poll worker at TCF.

Says she saw "agitators" at TCF who were "trying to get GOP people in trouble."

Repeats reports from others that people at TCF were rude or mean.

No evidence of fraud or misconduct

Next speaker: Melissa Corone (sp?) says she worked in an IT capacity at TCF Center. Says she worked with Dominion Voting System, the company that provides elections software across the country.

Unclear exactly what she was doing, but said she witnessed "complete fraud."

She said while she was there to assist with IT, she said she watched the same ballots be counted multiple times.

Hasn't presented evidence of this, but this is one of the clearest allegations of fraud presented today.

The speaker says she did not see a single ballot cast for Donald Trump ("that's scary").

There were 174K absentee ballots cast. Trump earned about 13,000 total votes in Detroit.

Lucido asks what she was employed to do.

Speaker says she was with PDS staffing to "assist with IT work for Dominion."

Lucido asks why Dominion needed assistance. Speaker says "I cannot answer that."

Still unclear what she was actually hired to do at TCF

Speaker doesn't give a clear answer as to why she was needed as a contractual employee.

Lucido asks speaker to talk about any issues with the software at TCF.

Speaker doesn't provide clear information at all. Lots of implication and speculation, but she hasn't provided what she was actually hired to do at TCF

McBroom asks about ballots being counted multiple times.

Speaker says when a ballot jams, machine will say discard or recount. Says workers recounted batches of ballots when there was a jam.

Completely unclear what training she has on how tabulation machine works

Carone offered similar testimony with a lawsuit filed in Wayne County. courts.michigan.gov/Courts/Michiga…

Wayne County Judge Timothy Kenny determined allegations in TCF of what occurred were "incorrect and not credible" freep.com/story/news/loc…

State Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, asks specific question of Carone, which she both does not answer and implies the question shows there was impropriety.

The hearing is getting a bit far afield. Carone providing lots of testimony of all sorts of alleged misconduct.

No one else has provided any testimony that corroborates any of this

Sen. Irwin asks Carone what happens if a ballot is run through a machine multiple times. Is the ballot recorded in the poll book multiple times?

Carone doesn't answer the question. Carone is again getting testy with lawmakers

Irwin: If someone were to run same ballot over and over again, that would show up in poll book right?

Carone: Did I say someone ran same ballot over + over and over again?

Carone now arguing with lawmakers. Irwin notes poll book numbers don't match with what Carone is saying

Now Sen. Michael McDonald asking Carone, a citizen, asking whether the DOJ is investigating.

There's no way Carone would know this. McDonald knows this.

Now McDonalds asks her if Trump campaign would have a "pipeline" to the DOJ.

Carone says something "coming out" next week

Next speaker up. James Dannely (sp?) says he was a poll challenger at TCF center.

He submitted an affidavit, he says. Says ballots were backdated and references the Jan. 1, 1900 birthdate. Chris Thomas and others have addressed this allegations

Speaker says he "sent a website" that "shows" dead people voted.

Again, this has been debunked.

We're about 2.5 hours in to this legislative hearing, and there has been very little pushback on repeated allegations of misconduct

Speaker says there is evidence of mass voter fraud.

There isn't.

Speaker says Legislature must act swiftly.

Committee taking a 5-minute break

Okay, hearing back underway.

Looks like state Rep. Beau LaFave, a UP Republican who sits on the House Oversight Committee, is sitting behind the senators.

LaFave, who previously disclosed he had caught COVID-19, does not appear to be wearing a mask (seated on right)

Next speaker (missed her name) said she worked at both a Detroit voting precinct during the day and as a poll challenger at TCF at night on Election Day. Says she's already submitted an affidavit to the Trump campaign

Speaker discussing ballot tabulation operations. Said it could be possible someone could "re-feed" ballots into a tabulation machines.

Ballots would be recorded as being counted twice if this happened.

A speaker from Milford says she was a poll challenger at TCF. Said on Tuesday went pretty well. But there was animosity at TCF on Wednesday.

Says she was surprised there were many ballots to county Wednesday.

Michigan law bans counting absentee ballots until Election Day

Speaker says people cheered when Republicans were "hauled out" of TCF. Speaker also says she was intimidated.

Doesn't present any evidence of fraud

Next speaker, Michael Dubiel, says he was a poll challenger at TCF Center.

Says table supervisors were wearing "political statements." Said he saw Black Lives Matter on masks and t-shirts. (This isn't evidence of fraud.)

Dubiel said he tried to challenge several ballots, including ballot that he said was completely blank.

Said table supervisor told him provisional ballots were tabulated and tabulation machine would uncover errors. Says supervisor told him "the tabulator would correct the error"

Dubiel says ballots were dropped off at TCF at 3 or so in the morning.

Also says he was challenged about mask wearing. Again, none of this is evidence of fraud or irregularities.

From the meeting livestream, it sounds like there are people chanting outside the hearing room. @CraigDMauger noted earlier there were people with signs yelling

Speaker says he watched people bring in boxes of ballots late at night/early in the morning. Not immediately clear how he knew these boxes contained ballots.

About 3 hours in to Senate hearing. At no point has committee heard from anyone working with Detroit, or state, who could answer some of the lawmakers questions about how absentee counting operations are supposed to work.

Instead, hearing from GOP challengers almost exclusively

McBroom: "If there is somebody here who has some credibility with the crowd and could share with them their disorder is" disrupting proceedings, I'd appreciate it.

McBroom threatens to end meeting if people outside don't stop disrupting proceedings. People yelling at McBroom

Next speaker is a man who said he worked as a GOP poll challenger at TCF Center.

Says poll workers were "picked off" by employees at TCF. Says there were limited number of GOP challengers at TCF.

Speaker, like others, says he was prevented from getting very close to tabulation tables or stations due to COVID-19 concerns.

Says a table supervisor laughed at him and gave him "the COVID runaround" when he said he tried to review ballot tabulation processes

If there is any consistency in the testimony today and affidavits submitted with Trump campaign lawsuits, its that GOP challengers felt intimidated and ignored.

Fwiw, there is no requirement for uniform training of poll challengers in Michigan

Speaker says he was threatened by an elections worker. Says a police officer removed him from TCF "without any due process."

Speaker says she saw several dozen military ballots, and only 3 went from Trump.

Speaker says clerks who testified at a recent hearing "have no credentials" to speak about election integrity and security

Sen. McDonald, after three hours of GOP challengers testifying and not presenting any evidence of widespread fraud at TCF, says it sounds like from speakers testimony that TCF was a "complete sideshow"

Another speaker who says he was a poll watcher at TCF says he saw "routers with high amounts of transferring and work." (Not sure what that means?)

Reiterates that he was harassed at TCF.

Next speaker, Bob Cushman (sp?) says he believes he "witnessed evidence of mass election fraud" at TCF Center.

Says other people told him boxes of ballots were delivered late at night. Says none of names on the ballot were on the electronic poll book, but on supplemental sheets

Says it's "hard to believe" 10s of thousands of people registered to vote in the days proceeding the election. Says as he began to write down names of people from these ballots, he was accosted.

Alleging 30K-40K ballots with names not included in poll book. No evidence presented

Next speaker says he witnesses "theft of duplicate ballots."

Also says he saw arrival of ballots late at night/early in the morning. Says approximately 50,000 ballots arrived late. Not sure how he came up with that tabulation, but would account for a huge chunk of 174K AV total

Speaker says someone yelled on a loudspeaker "this is what democracy is supposed to look like" and people cheered.

Also reiterates he didn't see many ballots for Trump.

Detroit is a D stronghold. Most people in city didn't vote for Trump

Speaker also says he watched poll workers hand filling in ballots for Democratic straight tickets. Says he called FBI, Detroit Department of Elections and the Michigan Secretary of State

Chairman McBroom asks speaker to provide more information about ballots that arrived late at night/early in the morning.

Speaker instead discusses duplication of ballots.

Sen. Lucido asks speaker about arrival of ballots early in the morning.

Again, believe they're referencing ballots arriving early in morning of Wednesday, Nov. 3, day after election. Nothing suggested as to why this would be bad/fraudulent

Next speaker, Shane Trejo (sp?) also submitted affidavit. Said was a GOP poll challenger at TCF. Also references ballots brought in Wednesday.

These speaker says there was no "chain of custody, accountability or transparency."

Speaker says AG Nessel carrying out campaign of terror to intimidate people trying to present allegations.

Asks for "forensic audit" but "we know what these investigations would yield."

Why would an audit be necessary if outcome already known?

Next speaker up (believe his name is Bill). Says he was a poll challenger at TCF on Nov. 2 and early on Nov. 3.

Speaker says early in the morning there was a lull, and people were tired.

For *months* elections officials warned absentee ballot counting would take a long time

Next speaker up. She, like others, says there were not enough Republican poll workers at TCF. She argues this shows there was no way Detroit could legally duplicate ballots.

Proponents argue both a GOP and Democratic challenger are needed to duplicate ballots

Committee is preparing to take a break at 2 pm, but sounds like many more people are scheduled to speak.

I'm preparing to transition to cover Gov. Whitmer's 2:30 pm press conference on the state's response to COVID-19.

My @freep colleagues @paulegan4 + @clarajanehen will continue to watch and report on the Senate Oversight Committee hearing

During today's Senate Oversight Committee hearing, Sen. McDonald has asked several Republican poll challengers if they know if the DOJ is reviewing allegations of misconduct.

AP reports AG Barr hasn't found any credible evidence of voting fraud

https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1333851919316619264?s=20

Here's an initial recap of the Senate Oversight Committee hearing (that's still ongoing):

Michigan Senate hears from GOP, no Democrats or Detroit staff, on allegations at TCF Center freep.com/story/news/pol…