Exclusive: Eyewitness Says as Many as 20,000 Unverified Absentee Ballots Counted in Detroit Primary

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

An eyewitness told The Kyle Olson Show that as many as 20,000 unverified absentee ballots in Detroit were fed through machines and counted during the August 4 primary.

In a segment released exclusively to Breitbart News before airing on Saturday, Michigan Republican Party-appointed poll challenger Bob Cushman said it was chaotic while absentee ballots were being counted in downtown on primary night in Detroit, a city known for voting heavily Democrat:

Cushman said he is concerned about election integrity and signed up to be an observer.

He noted that a car with Ohio license plates was driven into the large facility. Cushman said he did not know what the purpose was, but he suspected “that car was somebody that was delivering ballots. It just seemed a little odd.”

In an affidavit, Cushman recounted several counting tables “had opened ballots with no poll book” to check to see if the individual was authorized to cast that ballot.

That is significant, he said, because the poll book is used to ensure “that name is someone that’s a qualified, real voter.”

In another instance, he “noticed pages being inserted into several poll books.”

According to Cushman, some workers left early as the day dragged into the night.

Polls closed at 8:00 p.m., but Cushman observed at 12:37 a.m. that “the threat was made that the $100 bonus that had been promised earlier (over the public address system) would not be paid.”

Cushman said in his affidavit that an order was made around 2:00 a.m. to open the remaining ballots “for immediate tabulation without additional processing or notation.”

“This is just my estimate,” he told The Kyle Olson Show, “but I would guess there were 10,000 to 20,000 after 2:00 a.m. — could have been more.”

Cushman thought election officials should go back to analyze what ballots were counted after the procedures were suspected and throw those votes out.

All of this is potentially consequential given the narrow 10,704-vote victory Donald Trump won in 2016 and the expected close margin anticipated in 2020.

“It’s very hard to change the result of an election after the fact,” Cushman stated.

He said in instances, such as what happened in Detroit with numbers not squaring, Michigan law prevents a recount.

Cushman also said he does “not have faith” that the errors during the primary election will be rectified by the November election.

“But perhaps if we put enough light on this subject, that there be enough heat to get it done correctly,” he said.

He encouraged volunteers to serve as poll watchers for the presidential election to increase integrity in the process.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on weekends. Listen to segments on YouTube or download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Parler.

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