Since the 2020 US Presidential election, the term ‘voter fraud’ has taken center stage in the public discourse. Despite numerous court challenges and recounts, President Trump and his supporters continue to baselessly assert that the election was marred by massive fraud and corruption. One of the most prominent examples of these disproven claims is the scandal in the US state of Michigan.
In Michigan, President Trump and his supporters accused the state’s Democratic officials of scheming to rig the election in Joe Biden’s favor. A right-wing group, led by conservative journalist Charlie LeDuff, took up the cause and mobilized the public to expose the alleged fraud.
Leduff and his group set out in pursuit of alleged corruption in their home state. In their investigation, they encountered a mysterious web of sketchy local and state elections officials, elderly voters facing pressure to vote for Biden, and fraudulent ballot submission schemes. As he and his group investigated this tangled web of suspects, evidence of any actual fraud seemed to remain frustratingly elusive.
Leduff nonetheless claimed that fraud had taken place and that his investigation had managed to uncover it. Citing no facts nor proof, Leduff and his group continued to assert that the 2020 Michigan election had been plagued by a massive Democratic-led fraud.
Though the evidence of election fraud in Michigan remains extremely sparse, more recently, state and federal investigators have begun to take notice. Federal prosecutors, for example, recently interviewed several voters who had been targeted by the right-wing group. Ultimately, the ultimate outcome of the investigation remains unclear.
In the end, a right-wing tale of Michigan election fraud had it all—conspiracy, mystery, and intrigue—but only time will tell if the purported fraudulence can ever be proven. Until then, the people of Michigan and the United States will have to wait in eager anticipation of the conclusions of the investigation.