Gateway Pundit | by Patty McMurray | October 31, 2021
By now, most of America knows that when it comes to voting, Detroit is one of the most corrupt cities in America.
100 Percent Fed Up Exclusive – Thugs, which included paid election workers and scores of outside agitators at the TCF Center in Detroit, were used to distract, threaten, bully and intimidate GOP and Independent poll workers. At the same time, in the wee hours of the morning, boxes of ballots were delivered in an unmarked van filled with ballots that appeared in a back hallway of the largest absentee ballot counting center in Michigan.
After winning the election in 2016, Michigan residents witnessed Donald Trump’s popularity explode in their state. Rallies were larger, more Trump signs appeared in front yards across the state, and Trump flags and banners were everywhere. Miles of boats lined up for Trump boat parades in the Great Lakes State. Trump, who could see the enthusiasm for his campaign exploding in Michigan, once again chose Grand Rapids, MI as his final campaign stop of the season. Cars lined up for over 6 miles to get into the venue, and once inside, Trump supporters waited in line for over one mile. Meanwhile, Joe Biden skipped the state in favor of campaigning from his basement.
Curiously, like several hotly contested major cities in states across America, Joe Biden managed to erase Donald Trump’s lead in Michigan on the day after the election that many Michiganders still believe was stolen. Immediately after the election, several groups of concerned citizens were formed for the purpose of getting to the truth about what happened in the 2020 election. One group, however, the Michigan Citizens for Election Integrity (MC4EI.com), has made incredible discoveries that should cause every American to pause and question the outcome of Michigan’s elections, especially in Detroit. 100 Percent Fed Up is working closely with their group and will be releasing its findings in a series of reports.
Here is Part I in a series of stunning reports from MC4EI:
Detroit used defective ballot boxes last November.
The Detroit Department of Elections, under the authority of City Clerk Janice Winfrey, allegedly used defective ballot boxes in the November 2020 elections.
This was reported to both legal counsels at the Wayne County Board of Canvassers and the Senate Oversight Committee, which recommended an investigation by the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. But none appears to have occurred, despite the fact that, under Michigan law, if a clerk is found guilty of using an unapproved ballot container in an election, it is a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to 90 days in jail.
The following is an excerpt from a soon-to-be-released report by Michigan Citizens for Election Integrity (www.MC4EI.com), entitled “TCF Timeline: the 2020 Detroit General Election”:
Both Wayne County Board of Canvassers Chair, Monica Palmer and her fellow GOP canvasser, Bill Hartmann, had been to the DOE (Detroit Department of Elections) in January before the elections to examine and approve 50 new ballot boxes (metal transfer cases in which ballots are stored from the election through the canvass). While there, Hartmann noticed the back end of one of the boxes caved in when he pressed against it. The spot welds attaching the back end or “back beam” to the frame had failed. “Where the seams are you could shove papers right through the back of them,” Palmer told a Senate Committee. Concerned, Hartmann decided to test the others. Soon the canvassers were going from box to box reaching inside and giving a good “slap” on the back end from the inside out. Hartman recalled dozens of boxes failed this simple test.
“None of the boxes had any markings on them. No company name or any indication of what company manufactured them.” -Bill Hartmann, member of GOP Wayne County Board of Canvassers
He found it peculiar that “none of the boxes had any markings on them. No company name or any indication of what company manufactured them.” He then examined the cardboard boxes they arrived in. Again, there was no indication of a manufacturer or even any printed wording. Since the boxes were defective and the chain of custody could easily be compromised by someone slipping ballots through the gaps at the back, the canvassers ordered them to be repaired or replaced followed by a second attempt at certification. They recommended not using the same company due to its abysmal failure rate.
“The boxes were defective and the chain of custody easily compromised by someone slipping ballots through the gap in the back.”
So, when Palmer and Hartmann arrived at the counting board floor on Election Day, they were appalled to find boxes to which they themselves had affixed and signed stickers back in January warning: “Not approved for use as a ballot container.” Palmer testified to Senator Ed McBroom: “I did observe several counting boards that were using the unapproved containers.” She emailed the Canvassing Board’s legal counsel. Under Michigan law, a clerk using an unapproved container could be charged with a misdemeanor. She then asked the Senators: “How are these processes happening? Especially when we had the Secretary of State send oversight in there to help improve things.”
The image below shows a ballot box that was used on November 3, 2020 election with a sticker signed by Detroit Board of Canvassers Chair Monica Palmer that clearly states: Not Approved For Use As A Ballot Container
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Here is close up shot of the warning sticker on the ballot box:
Could unscrupulous election staff remove what might serve as a false backing on a sealed metal ballot container and insert, remove or swap out ballots? If the above testimony and the photo accompanying this excerpt are any indication, that is a valid concern. And what is the name of the mystery company that supplies the Detroit Department of Elections with defective ballot containers?
“Where the seams are, you could shove papers right through the back of them.” -Wayne County Board of Canvassers Chair, Monica Palmer
Normally, at the close of the election, these ballot containers are sealed by the workers at the respective counting board, the seal numbers are recorded and, under Michigan law, are required to be signed by one Republican and one Democrat. A GOP challenger, alleges that, at the close of counting, the TCF Counting Board chief, Daniel Baxter asked for a handful of Republican poll workers to sign the seals on numerous ballot containers that they did not feel comfortable signing. This was due to the fact that they did not work at the counting boards where the ballot containers originated and therefore, could not attest to having any knowledge of what was in the containers, or as to whether chain of custody was still intact.
In order to understand the many gross irregularities and instances of official malfeasance that occurred at the TCF Center Absent Voter Counting Board (AVCB) in Detroit last November, it’s important to understand how the counting process works and how it deviated sharply from that process in 2020.
A “counting board” is the smallest unit of vote-counting capability for tallying absentee votes. Each one counts the ballots from 1-4 Detroit precincts. There were 134 counting boards inside the TCF Center. Each one consisted of an arrangement of tables in a square with 3-5 poll workers seated around the outside of the tables. During the count, they each take a separate step in processing the ballot. This typically includes: verifying it exists in the electronic poll book, verifying that the signature on the outer envelope matches that on file, matching the number on the ballot with the number on the envelope, removing the ballot from the outer envelope, and removing the ballot’s number stub. After processing, the ballot is then tabulated in a vote-counting computer.
Table #38 inside the TCF Center
It is important to understand that, before 2020, ballots were counted by inserting them into a large stand-alone tabulation machine located a few steps from the counting board, after which the ballot would drop into a bin enclosed inside the machine.
The only time prior to the end of the vote count that the ballots might be removed from this tabulation machine would be in the event of a jam. If one occurred, the supervisor of perhaps 4-5 counting boards would arrive with a key, open the door on the side of the tabulation machine, straighten out the ballot jam and relock the door. Note that the ballots would typically remain inside this large tabulator, and the straightening out of the ballots would be done in full view of poll workers, observers, and challengers. The large tabulators themselves would remain in close proximity to the counting board throughout the election.
This sensible and relatively secure arrangement changed in 2020. These large, locked, stand-alone tabulating machines were replaced with high-speed tabulators the approximate size of a desktop printer. Ballots were fed into these tabulators in batches of 50 and then moved to the appropriate metal ballot containers according to the precinct. In a bizarre arrangement that seems to defy logic, instead of these compact new tabulators being deployed on or near the counting board tables, thereby preserving proximity, “chain of custody,” and thus ballot security, they were taken to a location far away from the boards and lined up in a long row. As noted in TCF Timeline:
The tabulation of ballots was done away from the counting boards, thus breaking the chain of custody.
At the end of the day, a counting board team could not sign off on the final number of ballots they had processed since they were no longer in the team’s custody at the end of the shift or day, having been walked batch after batch through the chaos of the room to the tabulators.
The ballots were transported by a single poll worker through a gauntlet of people and tables in a massive, bustling room – over the size of a football field — and with no oversight. These ballot movements were not logged, and the ballots were not signed out. Thus, the chain of custody was broken, and at the end of the count, the poll workers at the counting boards could no longer attest that the ballots never left their custody. GOP challenger Eugene V. Dixon voiced his concern in an affidavit, stating that on Election Day at the TCF, he ……observed that the procedure for tabulating ballots included carrying stacks of 200 ballots to the tabulator area to be fed 50 at a time. Counted ballots would then go into metal bins near the tabulators. At one point, I noticed an election worker carry the metal bin containing tabulated ballots back to where the ballots were being picked up at the table. This would have easily allowed removing tabulated ballots from the container, adding them to the pile of yet-to-be tabulated ballots. When I complained to the supervisor – this practice stopped.
This new arrangement also contributed to the mixing up of ballots, many of which appear to have been placed in the wrong container following tabulation. For example, in the August 4th, 2020 Detroit Primary election, 72 percent of the precincts were found by the Board of Canvassers to be out of balance – meaning the number of ballots in the ballot transfer cases didn’t match the number of ballots counted by the machines, as reflected in the tabulation computers’ final paper printout. As explained in “TCF Timeline: the 2020 Detroit General Election”:
Tabulation machines were placed at least 7 feet from the rows of metal transfer cases (ballot boxes), where ballots exiting each tabulator would end up following tabulation. GOP challengers were told to stay outside of the row of metal cases. This created a subtle but effective barrier that served to keep most GOP challengers’ prying eyes far from tabulator jams and ballot over-counting. In addition, due to the distance of each transfer case from its respective tabulator, it is likely that ballots were occasionally placed in the wrong transfer cases, thus throwing that precinct “out of balance.” In fact, this was cited as one of the reasons for past Detroit precinct imbalances (over 70% in the August 2020 Primary).
Under Michigan law, this means there can be no hand recount of the ballots in the transfer case, i.e., if the number of ballots in the case does not equal the number listed on the tabulator tape, then the number on the tabulator tape stands. (MCL 168.871:
With a staggering 72 percent of counting boards out of balance (norms throughout the state are in the 1-3 percent range), the Wayne County Board of Canvassers requested assistance from the State of Michigan to sort things out and try to prevent it from happening again. Ultimately, this came in the form of the retired, long-time Director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections, Chris Thomas, who was hired to be City Clerk Janice Winfrey’s Senior Advisor. It is currently not clear whether the new ballot flow arrangement originated from Thomas and/or Special Project Consultant Daniel Baxter, a former Detroit Director of Elections. Regardless, when the Wayne County Board of Canvassers counted the number of ballots in each container and compared the number to the corresponding number of ballots listed on the tabulator tape, Detroit counting boards were once again out of balance by…70 percent.
When the Board of Canvassers investigated the imbalances at the August 4th debacle, the explanation given was that many ballots had been placed in the wrong containers. If a poll worker walks 7 or 8 feet from a tabulator to the tightly-packed row of ballot containers, it’s conceivable that an occasional ballot meant for one precinct might end up in that of another, thus throwing off the count of two precincts, one having one ballot too many and the other having one ballot too few.
But rather than changing the location of the ballot containers to right next to the tabulators, the approximately 7-foot spacing was kept in place. When Daniel Baxter was asked at the October 29th, 2020 pre-election challenger conference inside the TCF Center, whether something was going to be done about the vulnerability of the container placement to accidental error, he acknowledged the issue but explained that the problem had been solved by adding extra workers, because the mistakes were caused by “stressed out” poll workers. He also added a “transmittal sheet” with the table numbers on them. Apparently, placing each ballot container right next to its assigned tabulator, instead of 7 or 8 feet away, was not an option.
When the debacle at the TCF Center last November is examined in detail, those legitimately concerned about election integrity must confront the following alarming developments:
Ballot boxes with gaps in them, used in the 2020 election, despite being stamped unfit for use
An unknown manufacturer of the boxes with an unacceptable failure rate
A new tabulator ballot flow arrangement seems to produce many precincts out of balance, yet officials do not fix this arrangement.
When a precinct is out of balance without explanation, a Michigan law favors the results on the tabulator tape over those on the paper ballots and prohibits the latter from being recounted.