Michigan Republican spent eight months searching for evidence of election fraud | Hacker News Reader

Michigan Republican spent eight months searching for evidence of election fraud

theatlantic.com

50 pointsjs217 comments

I've been avoiding reading nearly everything political for months now, probably since January, but for some reason I read this one. It was really interesting, and a few things surprised me. It's a report written by a Republican that came down pretty hard on some other Republicans.

"He didn’t stop there. Galvanized by the shameless grifting he’d encountered during the course of his investigation, McBroom stunned his GOP colleagues by referring to Michigan’s attorney general for possible prosecution “those who have been utilizing misleading and false information about Antrim County to raise money or publicity for their own ends."

Here's a response that suggests McBroom might be the one who is misleading people:

https://letsfixstuff.org/2021/06/mi-senate-2020-election-rep...

I read until: "Does it seem odd to you that the same people who stated there was no evidence of election fraud are now championing the cause of statutory improvements to our election system? "

That's just typical conspiracy theory bullshit language...

No Sherlock, the people just did an in depth analysis of the election system, they would be highly qualified to champion improvements to systemic problems with the system.

Just because there are systemic issues does not mean that there was election fraud. In fact I know one systemic problem with the election system in many states, the disproportionate hurdles towards black, young and poor voters. Funnily I highly doubt the writer would call this election fraud.

You should have kept reading. In my life, I've never seen anything that ugly. Yikes!!

It is just the tiniest bit weird that McBroom is simultaneously pointing out the absence of election fraud, and making it clear that it was a deliberate lie to think that there was any to begin with, while simultaneously toeing the party line on measures that are nominally about election fraud.

The answer, if course, is that they're not really about election fraud at all, but about voter suppression. It's disappointing that he sees how much of this is coming from dishonest sources and then supporting another dishonest measure, but unfortunately not exactly surprising.

Interesting but irrelevant he is still Republican and he will fall in line with the Party and chairman Trump.

"unaware that in nearby Ohio," Clearly this was written by a coastal or someone who needs a lesson in geography. Vulcan, Michigan, and for that matter most of the Upper Peninsula is closer to 3 other states including Iowa than it is to ANY part of Ohio.

> "unaware that in nearby Ohio," Clearly this was written by a coastal or someone who needs a lesson in geography. Vulcan, Michigan, and for that matter most of the Upper Peninsula is closer to 3 other states including Iowa than it is to ANY part of Ohio.

Can you explain why this is relevant? It seems of little consequence to me in the context that it is written.

As someone who lived in Michigan for 20+ years (I am aware where Vulcan, MI is), Ohio seems "nearby" enough given the reason the author would use that language in the article.

Because it undermines the legitimacy of the author, who may be writing about an area of the country he has little direct knowledge of.

The author grew up in Michigan (although somewhat closer to southeast MI).

Thanks, I did some quick research but couldn’t find that info so just went with the “may” qualifier.

I never thought about it before, but I count 5 for western UP.

The author of the piece is Tim Alberta, who graduated from Brighton High School in Brighton, Michigan and then from Michigan State University.

He probably has at least some knowledge of the geography of the Midwest, including Michigan and Ohio. Indeed, he has almost surely cheered for Ohio State every time they played UMich.

If you like, think about it as “nearby relative to Afghanistan” rather than “nearby relative to Wisconsin.”

This post, along with the replies that contain easily discoverable information disproving the commentor’s hypothesis, should be used as an example in unconscious bias training.

"Nearby" is a funny choice of words for anything over half an hour's travel or so. Like, is Scranton nearby to NYC? Sorta?

> Right around the time Donald Trump was flexing his conspiratorial muscles on Saturday night, recycling old ruses and inventing new boogeymen in his first public speech since inciting a siege of the U.S. Capitol in January

An article that starts like this is not likely to contain a fair representation of reality. And I am not a Trump fan.

Which part is not a literal statement of fact? Please be precise.

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