What about the Detroit Land Bank Authority properties, many being lots, which lodged absentee ballots which were tallied and certified by the City of Detroit Election Commission?
What if the 2020 General Election is put on hold due to absentee ballot fraud in the 2020 Primary Election?
What about the water shutoff issues of having a vote disqualified due to condemnation codes in Detroit?
How about this one - What about all the expired Michigan State IDs due to the Cooties?
Will this mean absentee ballots submitted before July 31, 2020 will be tallied and counted, even if one does not have a valid State ID at the time of signing the absentee ballot application and submission?
So many questions, so little time before the August 4, 2020 Primary Election, where, in Detroit, whoever wins the Primary, automatically wins the General!
President Donald Trump escalated his ongoing attacks on the mail-in voting process Thursday morning, suggesting in a tweet that the November election should be delayed.
The statement — coming five days before a primary election in Michigan, which will be marked by a huge number of absentee ballots due to fears of spreading coronavirus at polling places — garnered a massive and immediate backlash from Republicans and Democrats, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
"It’s clear that the president is more focused on his chances in the 2020 election than on protecting families from a virus that has killed more than 150,000 Americans," Whitmer said in an emailed statement.
"The truth is that mail-in absentee voting is safe, simple, and patriotic — so much so that the president and more than a dozen of his closest advisors have done it."
Trump's tweet came moments after the Commerce Department announced historically abysmal financial numbers for the second quarter of the year and amid continued evidence that he is well behind the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, in national polls and in battleground states like Michigan.
In recent weeks, Trump has shaken up his campaign team, trumpeted infrastructure projects in key states and suggested he will take action to keep impoverished Americans from living in suburban neighborhoods, all as he has continued to rail against what he calls mail-in voting, despite there being no difference between that and absentee voting, and the fact that Trump himself has voted by mail several times.
Over Wednesday and Thursday he posted several comments, including one on Thursday morning saying, "With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history."
"It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"
The president's rhetoric appears to be an attempt to sow doubt in the eventual outcome of the presidential vote and echoes other unfounded attacks on mail-in voting. Posting such comments days before Tuesday's primary in Michigan, meanwhile, could further undermine confidence in results, which Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says could take days to finalize.
"A sitting president is peddling lies and suggesting delaying the election to keep himself in power," U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, posted on Twitter shortly after Trump's tweet. "Don’t let it happen."
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, said on Twitter, "The general election will take place on November 3rd. Period."
"We aren't going to delay an election just because this impeached president's poll numbers are falling," she added.
The president does not have the power to delay any federal election. This power is reserved to the states or Congress, according to the National Constitution Center.
“Unlike the practice of some states that allow the governor to postpone an election during emergencies, neither the Constitution nor Congress provides any similar power to the president or other federal officials to change this date outside of Congress’s regular legislative process,” wrote the center, citing a recent opinion from the Congressional Research Service.
There is no indication that either chamber — especially with Democrats in control of the U.S. House — would entertain changing the date of the election. Even if somehow there were no election, Trump's first term in office will end, by law, on noon on Jan. 20, 2021.
Absentee voting expected to be big part of primary
Nearly 2 million Michigan voters have requested absentee ballots for the primary election. The presidential election and ongoing pandemic fears will drive that number up in November, Benson recently said.
Benson has repeatedly said mail-in voting is safe and secure. Whitmer echoed those comments Thursday while noting monumental events in U.S. history have not delayed other elections.
"If we could hold an election in 1864 in the midst of a Civil War threatening to tear our country apart, we can and will hold one in 2020. It’s time for the president to get his priorities straight and work with Congress on a bipartisan recovery package that protects our families, frontline workers, and small business owners.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked mail-in voting, implying Democrats have created a system that exacerbates fraud without providing any evidence. Chris Gustafson, a Trump campaign spokesman in Michigan, recently echoed those claims while saying Republicans have always favored absentee voting.
Voter fraud is very rare, noted University of Michigan professor Edie Goldenberg in a in a recent column for academic outlet The Conversation.
"The evidence we reviewed finds that voting by mail is rarely subject to fraud, does not give an advantage to one political party over another and can in fact inspire public confidence in the voting process, if done properly," Goldenberg stated.
Citing a database of voter fraud allegations maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation, Goldenberg noted 143 convictions for voter fraud involving mail-in ballots in the entire U.S. since 2000. That's only a fraction of the more than 250 million ballots cast during that time, she reported.
Republicans have been attacking absentee voting
In May, Benson mailed absentee ballot applications to all 7.7 million registered voters in the state. While she says the high participating rate is evidence that this was a successful efforts, Republicans in the state have attacked the effort.
Trump initially criticized the effort and threatened to withhold state funding. On Wednesday, Senate Elections Committee Chairwoman Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, questioned why Benson would use the state's qualified voter file as a mailing list. Johnson, who previously served as secretary of state, said she's heard from many concerned Michiganders who received ballot applications for family or friends who are dead or who moved out of state.
Both Johnson and Benson acknowledged the voter file is difficult to maintain and contains the names of people who are no longer eligible to vote. But Benson said a "secondary goal" of the May mailing was to help kick-start the process of cleaning up the file.
Voters may still request absentee ballots in person from local clerks until 4 p.m. Monday. A ballot must be received by a clerk by 8 p.m. Tuesday, when polls close, in order to be valid. Polls for Michigan's primaries open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Congressional Democrats criticize Trump's misinformation campaign
Democrats in Michigan's congressional delegation, meanwhile, were quick to denounce the president's suggestion and continued to say he was spreading false rumors about the security of absentee voting.
Just a day earlier, on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, led a letter signed by several Democratic members of Congress to Trump complaining that the president had been using his position to "spread misinformation about vote-by-mail" that wasn't supported by his own administration's findings.
"Your continued insistence on spewing misinformation and hoaxes does nothing more than create confusion," the letter said. "Your rhetoric is manipulating people into believing the upcoming November elections are 'rigged' without any evidence — a mistaken belief that threatens the integrity of our democracy moving forward.
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, said Thursday that by "laying out the path to discredit the results of the election," Trump is bolstering a theory that some of his critics have been talking about for months: The possibility that he might move to disrupt the election or the transition of presidential power in some way.
"It sent a shiver down my spine, as I hope it does all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle," said Slotkin, a former acting assistant U.S. Department of Defense secretary.
U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township, said he expects more to come. "We are in the midst of a dystopian nightmare caused by the greatest failure of executive leadership in the modern history of the presidency. Given Trump’s poll numbers, I’m afraid we can expect a lot more efforts to sow fear, confusion and conspiracy theories."
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, who was attending the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis' funeral in Georgia, said, "Voting and regular elections are a fundamental pillar of our democracy. John Lewis said in his final words to America: ‘Democracy is not a state. It is an act…’ John Lewis fought with his soul to protect voting rights. We must each do our part to strengthen voting rights. We can and must have elections on Nov. 3."
Republicans in the delegation were less quick to respond to a question from the Free Press, though a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said Upton "does not believe the November election needs to be delayed."
Some other Republicans from outside Michigan knocked down the idea as well. Speaking on Fox News, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, said, “We will not delay the election.” U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said in a tweet, "Election dates are set by Congress. And I will oppose any attempts to delay the #2020Election."
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