July 24, 2023

It is nice to see that Democrats are finally taking law and order seriously. Recently, the Democrat attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel, brought 16 dangerous geriatrics to justice. They are all prominent Michigan Republicans, and they were hoping to slip some fake elector certificates to Mike Pence during the joint session of Congress on January 6th, 2021.

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I imagine that the plan had to work something like this: After Mike Pence announced the correct slate of electors for Michigan (the one signed by the Michigan Governor), 14 members of the GOP gang would make loud noises in the back of the House chamber. While Pence turned his head to observe the commotion, the two remaining members of the gang would slip the fake list of electors onto Pence’s dais. Imagine the uproar the next day when the nation learned that Trump had been elected instead of Biden! Thankfully, the plan did not work.

Unfortunately, another plan to steal the Michigan election was successful. That plan was perpetrated by the Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, and she is still at large.

Of course, I am being facetious. However, there are some serious points that should be considered.

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Benson truly did break the law in a very major way, and her illegal actions changed the election. Let’s make a point by point comparison between Benson’s illegal actions and those of the 16 “fakers.” First, however, we need to review the four aspects of the Jocelyn Benson fake election plan:

  1. First, she prevented the adoption of voter ID requirements (e.g., drivers license number or 4 digits of SS number) by claiming that “a voter’s signature is the primary and most reliable way of protecting against the possibility of fraud.” Benson made that very false statement at various times and venues.
  2. After touting signature matching as the “primary” method of protecting against fraud, Benson got rid of it. The secretary did that by telling county election clerks to just “presume” the signatures sent in with the ballots matched the registration signatures. Why did she do that? Who knows?
  3. Four months after the election, a judge ruled that Benson broke the law, but by then, the damage was done. Benson did not appeal. Why would she? Her guy won!
  4. Before the 2020 election, the Secretary of State mailed out 7.7 million ballot applications, even though only 3.3 million would be used. This was not the normal practice in Michigan, but the extra 4.4 million applications came in handy. Up to 225,000 would be used by ballot harvesters, in the estimate of True the Vote.

Was the action illegal?

The Contingent Electors

In Michigan, the certificate of electors that is sent to the U.S. Archivist and Senate must be signed by the state governor. I don’t believe that Nessel is claiming that the governor’s signature was forged, so I don’t see how any submission made could be confused with the approved slate of electors. It was merely an unsigned form. Further, the actions were taken prior to January 6th, and once it was clear that Mike Pence would not reject the approved certifications, the alternative certificates became irrelevant. No one tried to use the certificates, or switch them around, after January 6th.

In addition the people charged by Nessel say that their actions were merely a way of “preserving objections to a contested election, grounded in historical precedent…” That historical precedent was a famous 1960 Hawaii case, where Democrats took actions that were similar to those of the so-called fake electors.

On December 19, 1960, the Hawaii deadline for determining the electors, John F. Kennedy was trailing Richard Nixon, who was the presumed winner. Nevertheless, the Democrats submitted a competing list of electors, just in case Kennedy ended up winning, which he did. By the way, the Hawaii Democrats were generally praised for the actions they took.

Jocelyn Benson