Trump claims new fraud evidence as Michigan officials push back on disputed report

President Trump on Tuesday argued that voting machines in Michigan had substantial errors, citing a statistic from a report released Monday that has since been disputed by top state election officials. 

Trump tweeted, “68% error rate in Michigan Voting Machines. Should be, by law, a tiny percentage of one percent. 

“Did Michigan Secretary of State break the law? Stay tuned!” the president added. 

68% error rate in Michigan Voting Machines. Should be, by law, a tiny percentage of one percent. Did Michigan Secretary of State break the law? Stay tuned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2020

Trump also wrote in a tweet minutes earlier, “Tremendous problems being found with voting machines. They are so far off it is ridiculous. Able to take a landslide victory and reduce it to a tight loss.”

Tremendous problems being found with voting machines. They are so far off it is ridiculous. Able to take a landslide victory and reduce it to a tight loss. This is not what the USA is all about. Law enforcement shielding machines. DO NOT TAMPER, a crime. Much more to come!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2020

Both of the president’s tweets have been marked with a warning label by Twitter, saying, “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”

The error rate was just one of a series of claims included in a 23-page report on voting technology in rural Antrim County, which a circuit court judge on Monday allowed to be released to the public. 

The Detroit News reported that the information gathered was part of a legal fight and had previously been under a protective order, which prevented its release. 

The report from the Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG) argues that Dominion Voting Systems, which supplies election voting machines across the country, “is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.”

According to the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Elections Director Jonathan Brater condemned the ASOG report, arguing that it “makes a series of unsupported conclusions, ascribes motives of fraud and obfuscation to processes that are easily explained as routine election procedures or error corrections, and suggests without explanation that elements of election software not used in Michigan are somehow responsible for tabulation or reporting errors that are either nonexistent or easily explained.”

Dominion also denied the claims in a press release, writing that the election software company “has been the target of a continuing malicious and widespread disinformation campaign aimed at eroding confidence in the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.”

“There were no software ‘glitches’ that ‘switched’ votes in Antrim County or anywhere else,” the statement added. “The errors identified in Antrim County were isolated human errors not involving Dominion.”

Traditionally Republican Atrium County had previously garnered attention after initial results on election night showed President-elect Biden ahead of Trump by thousands of votes. 

Election officials later admitted problems in the reporting of results, and the county ended up going in Trump’s favor by more than 3,700 votes, according to The Detroit News. 

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel condemned the ASOG report in a joint statement Monday, with Benson saying, “If the Trump campaign had any actual evidence of wrongdoing — or genuine suspicion thereof — they could have requested a hand recount of every ballot in the state.” 

“They did not, instead choosing to allow shadowy organizations claiming expertise to throw around baseless claims of fraud in an effort to mislead American voters and undermine the integrity of the election,” she added. “Their actions are a corruption of the courts and the rule of law, as the release of today’s report clearly demonstrates.”

Trump has continued to advance his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, despite the Electoral College’s Monday vote officially certifying Biden as the 2020 presidential election winner.