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Defend It - at Taxpayer Cost - Against the "Enemy Within".

 Judge Kristen D. Simmons' Courtroom-Elector Conspiracy


By Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub | April 23, 2024

  

William Tyler Page, at the age of 48 (1918) who served as the clerk of the House, won a contest for penning The American’s Creed:

 

                  I believe in the United States of America as a Government

                  of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just

                  powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a

                  democracy in a Republic; a sovereign National of many

                  sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable;

                  established upon those principles of freedom, equality,

                  justice, and humanity for which American patriots

                  sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is

                  my duty to my country to love it; to support its

                  Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to

                  defend it against all enemies.

 

Today, Page’s essay is often recited at naturalization ceremonies. He once described his words as “a summary of the fundamental principles of American political faith as set forth in its greatest documents, its worthiest traditions, and by its greatest leaders.”

 

From the testimony given by what has been named “16 False Electors” in Michigan courts, statewide media, and official papers circulated by the office of the Michigan Attorney General, one might barely recognize the country Page described.


By what stretch of the imagination can a judicial system, which is supposed to be impartial and to treat every citizen equally in the eyes of the law, name its case “16 False Electors”? Where in that biased title can Americans find the national principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity that Page described?

 

What an Elector is

 

Each political party at their respective state convention nominates and elects candidates to fulfill the role of an elector for each year there is a federal election for president of the United States. This is not an abstract concept. This is Michigan law. 

 

168.42 In the year in which presidential electors are to be elected under section 43, each political party in this state shall choose at its fall state convention a number of candidates for electors of president and vice-president of the United States equal to the number of senators and representatives in congress that this state is entitled to elect. The chairperson and the secretary of the state central committee of each political party shall, within 1 business day after the conclusion of the state convention, forward by registered or certified mail a certificate containing the names of the candidates for electors to the secretary of state. The candidates for electors of president and vice-president who shall be considered elected are those whose names have been certified to the secretary of state by that political party receiving the greatest number of votes for those offices at the next November election.

 

Each elector then plays a role in the process. In this constitutional republic, based on democratically elected representatives, each elector is legally nominated. In 2020 the Michigan Republican Party held its convention via Zoom, and during the process, the party nominated and elected 16 electors. The party followed Michigan law.

 

To support its Constitution

 

Attorneys in Michigan take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, and one provision in the Fifth Amendment is routinely called “innocent until proven guilty.” Its actual wording reads, “nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;” United States Constitution.


The principle of “innocent until proven guilty” applies to each person on American soil.

 

So how could such blatantly prejudicial language as “16 False Electors,” worm its way into the title of a case?


During a preliminary hearing, an attorney in the employ of Michigan’s attorney general referred to the 16 legally-nominated electors as “false electors,” (2:22:26). He said they were trying to “steal an election.” (2:23:38) Judge Kristen D. Simmons' Courtroom-Elector Conspiracy Preliminary Exam cont. (youtube.com)

 

An email from the Michigan Attorney General’s office used the same language: 

 

From: Logan, LaDonna (AG) <LoganL3@michigan.gov>

Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 10:04 AM

Subject: False Slate of Electors group two

La Donna Logan

Assistant Attorney General

Michigan Department of Attorney General

Hate Crimes & Domestic Terrorism

Apparently, somewhere during this process, the AG’s office determined these 16 legally nominated electors were guilty. It chose wording that would so prejudice the public (and potential jurors) that the electors would have to prove their innocence.


Earlier during this hearing during the testimony of one “false elector,” James Renner, the court heard Mr. Renner’s testimony that they met (based upon all of the confusion surrounding the 2020 election and awaiting the outcome of recounts and lawsuits) to develop an “alternate elector slate, . . . in case it was needed.Judge Kristen D. Simmons' Courtroom-Elector Conspiracy Preliminary Exam cont. (youtube.com)

 

Since 2020, courts that have heard evidence in election integrity cases have ruled that there were many irregularities which compromised election integrity. What Georgia's ruling on Dominion voting machines means, and Pennsylvania Court Rules in Favor of RNC in Mail in Ballot Case.

 

No one was sure what was happening in the country in terms of the election. Events brought to mind the chaos of the 2000 Bush v Gore hanging chads election of the former president. COVID confusion ruled the day amid some of the most severe Governor-induced statewide lockdowns in the nation.

 

Mob Rule Part 1

 

Country singer Toby Keith sang about rule of the mob and taking the law into one’s own hands in his song, “Beer for My Horses.”  

 

Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son

A man had to answer for the wicked that he done

Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree

Round up all of them bad boys, hang them high in the street

For all the people to see


The United States proudly hails that while other countries may run by the mantra “might makes right,” this country defends the rights of the individual against the might of the government.

 

Let your fingers take this challenge:


Search your web browser. See if you can find an article that refers to these 16 electors as anything other than false.


Each time Michigan’s attorney general calls these people “false,” and says they’re trying to “steal an election,” is the office of the AG not hanging these legally-elected, presumed-innocent-until-found-guilty electors from a “tall oak tree . . . for all the people to see?”

Consider these headlines:



From the date of the 2016 presidential election until the day when he was to cast his vote as a Republican elector, Bill Rauwerdink received over “3 huge white plastic bins of mail a day.” The picture below is from one day of mail:



Letters flowed in from not just Michigan, but also from California, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.


The letters all carried similar messages, and many contained the exact same phrases and sentences.

"I am writing to you in your capacity as a presidential elector."


"I am grateful for your service to our nation as an elector."


"I encourage you to exercise the power granted you by the Constitution, and join the 156 "faithless" electors in our nation's history by putting country above party and blocking Donald Trump from the presidency. Hamilton would have wanted you to do so.".


Coincidence? Doubtful. 


It appears an organized, nationwide campaign was launched to intimidate Rauwerdink.


Rauwerdink says he “threw away eight to 10 huge boxes full. That’s thousands more tossed.” He saved “thousands in one small box.”


Read a sample of the letters Rauwerdink received:




Mob Rule Part 2

 

Rauwerdink was hardly alone. All of 2020’s duly nominated and elected electors, after meeting in December 2020, received a “mountain of hate mail.” Here are a few of the threats these regular citizens, who felt they were doing the civic duty, received:

 

  • “Tic toc, tic toc.”

  • “You will come to a tragic and expensive end.” 

  • One writer compared an elector to a “pig in the creek.”


How did an orchestrated intimidation campaign occur in a country based on individual freedom, equality, justice, and humanity? How was that not comparable to hanging someone from a tall oak tree? How is it that Michigan newspapers chose not to report these reprehensible tactics? Where was the public’s commitment to our nation’s judicial principles of "innocent until proven guilty"? 

 

Et tu Brute? (And you too, Brutus?)

 

Michigan’s attorney general levied charges against these electors during the summer of 2023, three-and-a-half years after the 2020 presidential election. Since then, their names have been dragged through countless newspaper articles, both on and offline. Each has had to dole out countless sums of money to defend themselves from a state in which the prosecutor of the case routinely calls them “false electors” and writes of the case as the “false elector” case.

 

The walk that these electors took to the Capitol is on film and was shown in court. Judge Kristen D. Simmons' Courtroom-Elector Conspiracy Preliminary Exam cont. (34:25)

 

That walk, their actions, apparently caused the Democrat electors to be highly offended, to have suffered humiliation and mental anguish and stress. Three of these Democrat electors filed a lawsuit against the “16 False Electors,” and then took to the airwaves and 60 Minutes to plead their case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dlbMZl2rNw


These same Democrat electors, the plaintiffs, have filed a civil lawsuit against the “16 False Electors, the defendants.


45. Plaintiffs were highly offended by being cast in the false light created by defendants. Plaintiffs viewed themselves as performing a civil and lawful duty as presidential electors in support of a country they love, only to have their legitimacy questioned and their integrity falsely and publicly denigrated by defendants' lies in their fake election certificates that defendants were the real Electors of the State of Michigan for President and Vice President of the United States...


46. Plaintiffs suffered humiliation, mental anguish and stress as a result of being cast in the false light created by defendants' election fraud and lies.


47. Defendants' election fraud and the resulting humiliation, mental anguish, and stress has made plaintiffs apprehensive about again seeking to be nominated as presidential electors.

 

Starting Monday, April 22, in Judge Kristen Simmons' courtroom, the case of the 16 electors will continue. It will be available on YouTube.


Electors –Friend or Foe?


In the name of one elector, “we are everyday Americans. We are not trying to subvert the government. We are family people. We were elected to be electors.” 12 of the electors are now in their 70s and 80s, the “vast majority are senior citizens who have a love of country. One is a farmer; one is a clerk. There are enough people picketing, rioting, burning down flags. We are not it.”


These 16 individuals would each recite the American Creed as they volunteered their time to the party of their choosing, to help form this perfect Union for which “American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes, . . . and that they would defend the country against enemies.”


These 16 individuals are now sacrificing their reputations, their fortunes, and possibly their freedom. One elector’s father was in hospice and this man was told by another relative: “Your [child] is going to go to prison.” Another elector received a text message from a niece, a niece who never asked the elector about what was transpiring, a niece who lives out of state and read an article in the newspaper. What did the niece write on this text message? “You’re a horrible person. I never want to talk to you again.”


Another elector is being pressured to give up an elected position merely because he was “charged” with a felony. Neighbors might have forgotten that many people who are charged are never proven guilty. Neighbors might have forgotten that on American soil, one has to be proven guilty. A newspaper article stating one is guilty doesn’t make it so; a charged handed down by the attorney general who is of a different political party doesn’t make it so, either. This is the United States of America, government that is governed by a Constitution with a Bill of Rights.


An elector stated, “You work all your life to build and protect your reputation and cherish it. With one swipe newspapers across the country print an article intimating that you’re a criminal.”


Charged with felonies (and now a civil lawsuit by the Democrat electors), about half of these electors are each facing legal bills of around $30,000 - $40,000 and there hasn’t even been a trial yet. There are many more days of legal bills to come.


With a swift announcement on television, with words printed both in physical newspapers and online, and with words uttered in the courtroom, they have become “the enemy within.” Michigan taxpayers are paying for the court case that Michigan’s attorney general has mounted against them, apparently considering these 16 people “the enemy within” Michigan’s borders.


The final stab that is said to have killed Julius Caesar came from his trusted friend. Before dying, Caesar uttered the famous words, “Et tu Brute?” And you, too, Brutus? 


Many of the electors have a GiveSendGo account and contributions would be greatly appreciated. The names of the electors are listed below:


Kathy Berden

Hank Choate

Amy Facchinello

Cilff Frost

Stan Grot

John Haggard

Mari-Ann Henry

Tim King

Michelle Lundgren

Meshawn Maddock

Myra Rodregus

Rose Rook

Marian Sheridan

Kent Vanderwood


 

Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub serves on MFE’s Communications Team. She started her career working for an international company, transitioned into teaching French and Latin while her children were young, and then became a Michigan attorney.


 

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The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the Michigan Fair Elections. Every article written by an MFE author is generated by the author or editor alone. Links embedded within the article, however, may have been generated by artificial intelligence


 


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