Michigan election fraud protest draws small crowd, Republican candidates and a web of conspiracies

LANSING, MI — One year, one month and 25 days after Michigan’s 2020 election results were certified, conservative activists are still demanding another investigation into former President Donald Trump’s loss.

Patrick Colbeck, a former state senator who traveled the state championing his efforts to uncover election vulnerabilities, organized the latest rally at the Michigan Capitol featuring campaign speeches from Republican candidates for governor and state offices in 2022. Social media posts advertising the event called for “thousands of patriots” to fill the Capitol and hear Colbeck speak on the House floor, though he told roughly 80 attendees that plans changed.

“You think they’re going to listen to me talk about election fraud? I don’t think so,” Colbeck said.

The event was promoted on social media by several activists who protested Trump’s loss outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They encouraged attendees to show elected officials “how strong the grassroots patriots are.” Organizers later said they decided against protesting inside the statehouse because they didn’t want reporters to say they “stormed the Capitol.”

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As lawmakers prepared for the Tuesday legislative session, protesters simmered over a lack of attention to their demands for a “forensic audit.” That Colbeck wasn’t able to secure an audience in the House of Representatives drove the point home. Election fraud activists said they’re outsiders, and it was literally true on the cold but sunny Tuesday in February.

Bipartisan clerks across the state completed more than 250 audits that examined ballots, voting machines and election procedures. The review confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory by more than 154,000 votes, though Trump’s most vocal supporters remain unconvinced.

“The power of the people, that’s why I’m here,” said Dustin Rhinebolt, 39 of Davison. “We need to stick together. We want truth. America is divided today.”

Senate Republicans also investigated allegations of fraud but found no evidence to substantiate the claims. For months, activists have held rallies outside the statehouse demanding Republican lawmakers take another, even more comprehensive, look at the 2020 results. Their pressure has been all but ignored.

Trump endorsed eight state House candidates and two state Senate candidates who have supported his unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud. Republicans control the House and Senate, but Trump said Michigan needs a new Legislature that sheds the “cowards” who aren’t willing to relitigate a finished election.

In attendance Tuesday was Mike Detmer, a Trump-endorsed state Senate candidate who recently told supporters to bring firearms “protect” polling places. He’s mounting a primary challenge against Republican state Sen. Lana Theis, the vice-chair of the Senate committee that investigated election fraud. Detmer claimed Theis “stood against getting to the truth.”

Detmer also said people who don’t believe the election was legitimate are not “the minority fringe.” He denounced a Monday bulletin from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reporting a heightened threat of terrorism fueled by conspiracy theories. The bulletin states the spread of false narratives about the 2020 election is a key contributing factor, and domestic extremist groups are advocating violence based on misinformation.

Several speakers said they felt the government is labeling them as terrorists.

“All of us here have been classified as domestic terrorists by the Department of Homeland Security, so be confident that you are in great company because our founding fathers were classified as terrorists by the King of England,” Detmer said.

Jacky Eubanks, a state House candidate endorsed by Trump, said she’s collecting evidence of a “coordinated attack” through canvassing voters in Macomb County. Eubanks said police interviewed her last week after receiving a complaint that she was intimidating voters.

“We are going up against the beast,” Eubanks said. “The beast hates us, but the good news is God is on our side and God wins. If continue to pray and to not comply and to stand up and peacefully fight back, we will see the regime’s power broken and finally the people will be put back in their rightful place as the true sovereigns in this nation.”

Frustrations were also directed at the Michigan Republican Party. MIGOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock and her husband state Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, briefly stopped by the event. Darlene Doetzel, an activist who helped organize the event, mocked the Maddocks for not giving remarks. Members of the audience called them “cowards.”

“Do you think they’ve got the guts to come out and talk to you?” Doetzel said. Then she led the crowd in chants of “Maddock, come on out.”

Mark Forton, Macomb County Republican Party chair, has accused the GOP of tipping the scales in primary races and working against candidates who support another election audit. Forton said Trump supporters have “no representation” in the Legislature and called on candidates to get behind the push for another audit.

“Trump-endorsed candidates should be screaming for an audit because I talked to Trump; he wants an audit in Michigan,” Forton said. “He wants to know why nothing is going on.”

Organizers said every Republican seeking the party’s nomination for governor was invited to attend the Tuesday rally. Four of the 13 appeared and gave remarks — Ryan Kelley, Ralph Rebandt, Bob Scott and Donna Brandenberg.

Brandenburg and Rebandt said they would find and prosecute unnamed people in the government who allegedly abetted election fraud. Brandenburg at one point speculated that undercover FBI agents were attending the rally.

Supporters collected signatures for “Secure MI Vote,” another ballot petition to tighten voter ID laws, ban outside funding for election and prevent the Secretary of State from mailing absentee ballot applications to people who don’t ask for one.

Another ballot petition seeks to require an audit of the 2020 election and transfer power to conduct audits from the Secretary of State to an independent board. State Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, introduced a bill along similar lines. He’s running for Michigan’s 4th Congressional District in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement.

Carra said House Republicans could subpoena records and do their own audit if enough of his colleagues get on board.

Colbeck ended the rally with a half-hour presentation on an international plot to “subjugate” the United States. He’s planning to cut a documentary film, and write a book to evangelize his findings. Colbeck is a minor celebrity in the world of election fraud conspiracies, even posing for photos with supporters.

Activists held a banner containing Colbeck’s purported evidence of a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. The print showed a collection of documents, photos and sticky notes held together by a web of strings on a corkboard.

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