Republican TV Ad Makes False Claim About ‘Dead’ Voters

An illegal ballot cast on behalf of a deceased voter is rare, and we could find no examples of it occurring in Michigan in 2020 or 2016. Yet, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan falsely claims in a TV ad that “dead people always vote Democrat,” and misleadingly suggests it is a widespread problem in his state.

Many Republican candidates in the 2022 election cycle have falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, despite no evidence of any widespread fraud. When he entered the race for governor in Michigan, Kevin Rinke said “there is no information that says that the election was stolen” from Trump, although he said “there are significant irregularities that have been exposed in the past election in Michigan.”

Rinke, former owner of the Rinke Automotive Group, is one of five Republicans who qualified to run in the primary for the right to face incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, the leading Republican in the race, and two others were for submitting ballot petitions with numerous forged signatures, throwing the race wide open.