(WXYZ) — President Donald Trump once again pushed a false voter fraud narrative about Detroit and Michigan during a call with Georgia's secretary of state over the weekend.
In the leaked audio published by The Washington Post, Trump brought up Detroit and Michigan early on in the hour-long call, in which Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to recalculate the vote and give Trump enough votes to win the state.
Related: Claims of rampant voter fraud in Michigan don't hold up to scrutiny
"I mean there’s turmoil in Georgia and other places. You’re not the only one, I mean, we have other states that I believe will be flipping to us very shortly. And this is something that — you know, as an example, I think it in Detroit, I think there’s a section, a good section of your state actually, which we’re not sure so we’re not going to report it yet. But in Detroit, we had, I think it was, 139 percent of the people voted. That’s not too good," Trump said, according to the Washington Post.
This is one of many false claims pushed by Trump and his allies regarding the votes in Michigan. The Trump campaign has already lost dozens of lawsuits around election fraud.
In Michigan, more than 5.5 million people voted in the presidential election back in November, which was the most ever for an election and surpassed the record of about 5 million in 2008.
According to the Michigan Secretary of State's Office, about 71% of people aged 18 and older voted in Michigan. There are 8,128,018 people registered to vote in Michigan.
In Detroit, statistics show that just about 51% of the total voters turned out for the election, not 139%.
Pres. Trump mentions both #Detroit and #Michigan during that phone call. “In Detroit, we had… I think it was 139 percent of the people voted," he says. See actual voter turnout for @CityofDetroit below. It's just under 51 percent @wxyzdetroit pic.twitter.com/7W3vX5PuKO
— Jenn Schanz (@JennSchanzWXYZ) January 4, 2021
Trump also said thousands of dead people voted in Michigan during the call.
"In Michigan, a tremendous number of dead people that voted. I think it was, I think, Mark, it was 18,000," Trump falsely claimed. "Some unbelievably high number, much higher than yours, you were in the 4-5,000 category."
In November, a viral tweet said that 14,000 dead people in Wayne County somehow voted, including a man named William Bradley, who the tweet said died in 1984.
But 7 Action News found Bradley at his home, alive. He said he heard about the claim, but he was "alive and kicking."
“I seen that (expletive) on the Internet,” he said, adding that family as far away as Texas had contacted him about it.
The Michigan Secretary of State's Office also released a fact check that says:
"Ballots of voters who have died are rejected in Michigan, even if the voter cast and absentee ballot and then died before Election Day. Those who make claims otherwise are wrong, and the lists circulating claiming to show this is happening are not accurate. Many of the lists do not contain enough information to accurately compare them tot he Michigan Qualified Voter File. MDOS and news organizations have drawn samples and reviewed samples of lists claiming to show votes cast by deceased individuals in Michigan. We are not aware of a single confirmed case showing that a ballot was actually cast on behalf of a deceased individual."
