One of the stories you may hear going around today is about an alleged 130,000 ballots that appeared at the TCF Center during the absentee count, verrrrrry suspiciously, and all of them -- every last one! -- was for Biden. Depending on the source, they either just appeared or were wheeled in at 4 a.m. by shadowy figures who delivered them in "a white van, a Chrysler 300 and a Ferrari." There are probably other versions out there, but we don't have time to find them all.
Anyway, the Freep dug up a possible source for the figure, and the rumor: A typo.
A since-deleted tweet posted by Matt Mackowiak, a conservative commentator and chair of Texas' Travis County Republican Party, appears to show that during one results update in Michigan, Joe Biden received 100% of newly counted votes. Attached to the tweet were two election maps appearing to show election results from earlier in the count and one from later. Mackowiak said he took the screenshots early this morning. Mackowiak acknowledged the posts were inaccurate. He has since deleted the tweet, explaining, "I have now learned the MI update referenced was a typo in one county."
The first image shows the vote tally of over 4.2 million votes with an estimated 77.3% to 90.9% of votes in, and the other shows the vote tally of over 4.4 million votes counted with an estimated 79.8% to 93.8% in. The map shows Biden having accrued more than 138,000 additional votes with none of the vote totals for the other candidates changing.
Elections require all the numbers, and sometimes humans type them into their devices incorrectly.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson addressed a question about the social media posting during a press conference Wednesday. While she was not familiar with that particular graphic, she said "I would ask everyone not to repeat misinformation."
She went on to say she's seen other false graphics online this year suggesting "there's some sort of problem," when in fact there has not been. (See press conference below)
