Authorities in a key jurisdiction have yet again concluded, based on a new expert report, that systematic fraud did not plague 2020 presidential election results. This time, Antrim County, Michigan, is at the center of the issue after initial unofficial results from the area were reported incorrectly. Conspiratorially minded Trump allies have claimed that the issue was evidence of the wide-reaching fraud that they’ve insisted marked the presidential election, but in reality, the initial incorrect reporting was the result of human error. A new expert analysis shared by the office of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) confirmed this conclusion.
Expert report affirms accuracy of #Antrim County presidential election results https://t.co/qCspPYFV7p#MISecureElections pic.twitter.com/FNhWmi5316
— Michigan Department of State (@MichSoS) March 26, 2021
The new analysis was conducted by J. Alex Halderman, who works as a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, and his findings “confirmed statements from the county and state that errors in reporting election results were the result of human error and were not caused by a security breach, and that there is no credible evidence errors were caused deliberately,” according to Benson’s office.
Votes in the presidential election were counted correctly ahead of the incorrect reporting, they explained. The Secretary of State’s team added as follows, discussing the report:
‘This again disproved false claims about Dominion Voting Systems equipment, which were debunked previously when a hand-tally audit of the county’s presidential election, carried out by both Republican and Democratic election officials, confirmed that the Dominion machines tabulated the presidential election accurately… The report affirmed there was no credible evidence the Dominion system was deliberately designed to induce errors.’
Dominion Voting Systems has figured majorly into post-election conspiracy theories that Trump and a slew of his allies have pushed. Major voices within the Trump camp including the ex-president himself have claimed that the company was at the center of a supposed scheme to rig the race for Biden, but no legitimate evidence supporting this theory has ever emerged. Tellingly, Trump and his allies have consistently failed to even map out a theory of how exactly the supposed fraud took place. Who was in charge? Where are the thousands and thousands of people whose cooperation would have been required for a nationwide scheme?
Dominion has filed substantial defamation lawsuits against a slew of prominent perpetrators of the conspiracy theory that they had something to do with imaginary election-rigging. Defendants include Fox News, attorney Sidney Powell, and longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani.
