Earlier this month, used Toyota salesman Kevin Rinke threw his millions behind a “flat-out false” TV ad to push completely unfounded conspiracy theories about the electoral process in order to justify his wrong-for-Michigan agenda that would make it harder for Michiganders to vote. In the weeks since, every single bogus claim laid out by the out-of-touch millionaire in the 30-second spot has been thoroughly dismissed by several outlets including the Detroit Free Press, CNN, FactCheck.org, and Politifact.
WLNS 6 was the latest outlet to issue a fact check, issuing corrections in print and on the air despite being legally required to run the ad.
WATCH the detailed segment here and read the excerpts at the bottom:
MDP spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued the following statement:
“This rotten ad from out-of-touch millionaire Kevin Rinke has more holes in it than zombie flesh. The election conspiracy theorist lacks the integrity to take this debunked ad off the air even after multiple thorough fact checks. That’s because he knows spooking folks with these complete falsehoods are the only way anyone could be convinced to get behind his backwards agenda. Michiganders have the braaaaaaaains to know a lie when they see one.”
Transcript:
WLNS 6 REPORTER: You may have noticed an unusual political ad running in Michigan, including right here on channel 6, in which Republican candidate for governor Kevin Rinke discusses the issue of election fraud, including from dead voters, and says he would take it on as governor.
Because this is political speech, which is protected by the first amendment, television stations, including WLNS, are required to air that ad. To be clear, Michigan does audit its elections and many incidents of voter fraud are investigated. In the November 2020 general election for example, multiple audits at the state and local level conducted by officials from both the Republican and Democratic parties found no evidence of fraud that could impact the results.
But what about the issue of dead voters specifically? Well, the state has audited that as well. In the almost 12 million votes cast over eight elections between May of 2019 and November 2020, there were about 2,800, roughly 0.02 percent of those cast, linked to voters identified as dead. Almost all of those were cast by people who mailed in absentee ballots but then died before election day. That is not fraud. And per Michigan law, those votes were not counted. […]
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office says it is not aware of a single confirmed case of ballot being cast on behalf of a dead person in Michigan in the last presidential election. So, no, dead people are not a major problem in Michigan’s elections.
