Kevin Rinke had better be paying good money to Daily Kos to run his galling Big Lie ad on this website. The ad, which is also running on TV, shows Michigan Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kevin Rinke at a polling place with a zombie.
Because supposedly there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Supposedly, ballots were cast using the names of people who died years ago.
Rinke, a “conservative” businessman, even has the gall to claim that “dead people always vote Democrat.” How do you even begin to unpack the stupid in that? I turn it over to Clara Hendrickson and Louis Jacobson writing for Politifact:
Rinke goes on to accuse Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of failing to crack down on voter fraud, saying that if he wins the governorship, he’ll make sure that voters are "registered, identified and alive."
Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the Rinke campaign, said that a "quick Google search will show multiple news articles on deceased voters voting in elections."
Ballots cast on behalf of dead people does happen, though it’s a tiny fraction of all votes. However, a Google search like the one the Rinke campaign requested actually shows that its assertion that dead people "always" vote Democratic is itself a zombie claim — and no less mythical than an actual zombie.
"This ad is so incorrect it gave me a headache," said Thessalia Merivaki, a political scientist at Mississippi State University who studies voter fraud. She said there is "zero evidence" that ballots cast by dead people account for more than a tiny fraction of all votes recorded, and there’s also "zero evidence" that such ballots have uniformly been cast in favor of Democrats, Merivaki added.
So, not uniformly. Or maybe ever?
When we combed news reports in recent years for cases of ballot fraud on behalf of deceased voters, we found that Republicans were more often the perpetrators. This does not mean that only Republicans perpetrate this kind of fraud; ours is not a scientific study, and it’s possible that other occurrences, by either Democrats or Republicans, have not been detected or reported on.
Oh, come on, Politifact, you were doing so well and then you went both-sideist. Even so…
Regardless, the presence of any Republicans committing this sort of voter fraud is enough to undercut Rinke’s sweeping statement that only Democrats do it.
Rinke seems smart enough to know that he’s just spouting bullcrap. Unlike Gov. Dan Patrick (R-Texas), Rinke hasn’t offered any bounties. Because if he did, he would certainly have to pay up to a Democrat proving yet another case of a Republican committing voter fraud.
Voter fraud is just another tool in the Republican toolbox to circumvent the will of the people, right along with voter suppression, voter intimidation, gerrymandering, etc.
Rinke’s previous ads are also galling, but less so. Supposedly Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Michigan) is ruining Michigan. Rinke’s “bold” ideas to “save” Michigan are to “cut government waste,” to “end indoctrination” in schools (obviously referring to critical race theory) and to eliminate Michigan’s income tax, replacing it with… he hasn’t said.
That seems to check off all the right boxes for right wing nuts, but maybe it’s all still too abstract. So bring in a zombie and falsely accuse the zombie of voting Democrat. Maybe that’s what it takes for Trumpsters to choose Rinke over the other Republican clowns with gubernatorial aspirations.
Hazen Pingree and George Romney won’t be voting in the 2022 election. But if they could, I believe they would be too ashamed of what the Republican Party has become. Nor would anyone be able to use their names to vote, because such a fraud would be caught instantly.
At least that will be the case as long as we’ve got someone with courage and integrity overseeing Michigan elections, someone like Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D-Michigan), and not some Trump lackey like probably any of the Republicans vying to replace Benson.
My inclination in regards to Rinke’s Big Lie ad would be to respond with an ad in which the zombie casts a ballot for all the Republicans. But I’m no Eli Gold. Maybe Eli Gold would say it’s best for Whitmer not to respond to ads like that at all.
Whitmer currently has an ad touting the recent Michigan infrastructure investments. That’s probably the right message for now. Go to her campaign website if you would like to donate to her campaign.
