Michigan Republicans already are plotting to place believers in the Big Lie – that Donald Trump was re-elected – in vote-certifying positions before 2024.

Among Michigan’s 11 largest counties, Republicans have nominated Trump stalwarts for eight county boards that certify election results, The Detroit News describes Monday in a subscribers-only article.

The strategy is to bounce Republican county board of canvassers members who certified the 2020 vote in favor of Trumpers who’d try to block unfavorable future results. That’s a big part of the GOP’s purported focus on “election integrity,” despite no evidence of consequential 2020 fraud.

Worse yet, some insiders engaged in this chicanery are among the party’s most shadowy characters.

“Trucker Randy” Bishop, whose wife is an Antrim County nominee.

They include “Trucker” Randy Bishop of Antrim County, whose wife is nominated for a seat on the county’s Board of Canvassers. “Trucker Randy” is a longtime provocateur on a northern Michigan radio show, “Your Defending Fathers,” as well as former GOP chair in Antrim County, the state’s clown show of Big Lie conspiracy theories.

The trucker’s most recent deep dive into election nonsense came in June, when he moderated a pro-Trump event with election critic Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow. During the gathering, Lindell riled up the crowd by implying the U.S. Supreme Court would somehow put Trump back in office in August.

Flim-flam 

Another GOP flim-flam man playing a role in this 2024 lead-up is William Rauwerdink, an ex-con West Bloomfield Township businessman known in financial circles from Metro Detroit to Wall Street for a $285-million swindle of his company’s investors.

William Rauwerdink

He now chairs the 14th Congressional District Republicans after holding several party positions in recent years. Rauwerdink brushed off questions about replacing a GOP Wayne County Board of Canvassers member because she voted to certify President Biden’s obvious win.

When Craig Mauger of The Detroit News called to question the process of selecting canvassers, Rauwerdink responded: “Thank you very much. Great call. Have a nice life,” and then hung up.

One of the party’s three GOP nominees for a replacement on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers is Hima Kolanagireddy, who was among those who Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani brought forward in December to testify at a state House hearing in favor of flimsy claims of election fraud. That bizarre hearing spawned a “Saturday Night Live” opening skit.

Genesee County Clerk John Gleason, a Democrat, warns that GOP “wackos” are willing to insert “nut cases” into a benign, bipartisan routine.

 

This is an excerpt of a column I wrote for Deadline Detroit.

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