- Oct 17, 2011
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Mishaps in Michigan spur spread of misleading election claims
On Wednesday morning, confusion over the number of ballots cast in the state was sparked because of a formatting error that has since been corrected, with no extra votes counted, according to the Michigan secretary of state’s office.Some of the confusion appears to have originated from a post on X by Matthew DePerno, one of the more high-profile election deniers in Michigan. A former GOP nominee for attorney general in Michigan, DePerno was charged last year in connection with efforts in 2020 to illegally access and tamper with voting machines in hopes of proving that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. DePerno has pleaded not guilty in the voting machines case.
DePerno’s post, which has been viewed more than six million times, said his review of Michigan’s Qualified Voter File — a voter records database that tracks ballot submissions — showed one voter ID had recorded a vote dozens of times at various addresses. DePerno added that the data in the spreadsheet showed over 160,000 excess ballots cast.
The Michigan secretary of state’s office attributed the confusion to a “formatting error” in the spreadsheet that it says has been corrected, which inadvertently appeared to show the same vote attributed to former addresses associated with an individual.
When asked about the clarifications from [Lara] Trump and the secretary of state’s office, DePerno told CNN: “If you believe this is an export issue then you are a moron.”
The far-right conspiracy site The Gateway Pundit also appeared to dismiss the official explanations and referred to the incident as a “voting scandal” in a headline Thursday morning.
“Bless Lara’s heart, but this is not acceptable and likely inaccurate,” The Gateway Pundit wrote in response to her assurance the issue had been dealt with.
