Used Toyota salesman Kevin Rinke has been throwing 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. Now he’s claiming the lies he broadcasted about dead voters being used to influence elections were “a joke” following an avalanche of definitive fact checks published by several outlets including the Detroit Free Press, CNN, FactCheck.org, Politifact, and WLNS 6.
In fact, the lies in Rinke’s ad resulted in the local news station issuing yet another fact check and reporting that they “have gotten stacks of viewer emails and phone calls with concerns.”
Here’s what the out-of-touch millionaire doesn’t want you to know:
Dead Voters Were Not Exploited To Manipulate The Outcome Of Previous Elections
In reality, following the 2020 general election, the Secretary of State’s office did not find “a single confirmed case showing that a ballot was actually cast on behalf of a deceased individual.” This past March, Doug Ringler, the Auditor General appointed by the Republican-led state legislature, determined that “dead voters had no impact on the 2020 election.” Ringler’s report additionally clarified that the majority of the 0.03% of ballots attributed to dead people were legitimately cast when the voter was still alive. As for the rest of the millions of votes cast in the 2020 election, a separate state audit confirmed that 99.9% of all ballots tabulated were indeed valid.
Audited Over 250 Times, Michigan’s 2020 Election Was the Most Secure in State History
As of December 2021, “more than 250 audits” of the 2020 election have been conducted by both Republican and Democratic local election clerks alike. All have affirmed the truth: that the election was secure and accurate.
Rinke knows this, yet continues to baselessly claim that 2020 represented “maybe the greatest fraud ever in the history of our country.” He embracing any and all election conspiracy theories in the hopes it will justify his plan to use state police to “aggressively pursue and stop any irregularities” supposedly taking place on Election Day, a move he knows would only intimidate voters in precincts – especially Michiganders of color. It would also be a massive burden to Michigan. A similar initiative in Florida will cost taxpayers nearly $4 million to fund.
