But a city official poured cold water on the statements, explaining to CNN Business that steps have been taken at the center of the controversy to prevent private voter data from being improperly disclosed to the public.
Reports from pro-Trump outlets such as Fox News, Bretbart and The Gateway Pundit took into account the decision by poll workers at the TCF Center in Detroit to partially spot the window with cardboard as they count ballots inside and a group of clear Trump supporters gathered outside.
Reports were widely distributed and a large audience found their way. On Thursday, for example, the Bretbart article shared by Trump, when ranked by interaction for the previous 24-hour period, according to Facebook-owned analytics company Crowdtangle, all became Facebook’s top link.
Right-wing and personality reports suggest that polling workers were hiding inappropriate activity from the public.
But Detroit City Attorney Lawrence Garcia said Windows was partially blocked because voter information could be misrepresented to the public. This concern was exacerbated by the fact that protesters standing outside the ballot-counting area were taking photographs and recording videos.
“Some – but not all – windows were covered, as polling workers sitting inside those windows expressed concern about photographing people outside the center and about them and their work.” “Only the media is allowed to take pictures of the polling station, and people outside the center are not listening to requests to stop shooting polling workers and their papers.”
“Hundreds of challenges from both sides were inside the Central Counting Board all afternoon and all evening; dozens of reporters were also in the room,” Garcia said. “At all times, people outside the center could see through windows that were far beyond the calculation of board work space.”
But dispute the innocence of what happened, the story fueled the right-wing media machine to see distrust in the country’s voting system.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson presented the story on his prime time show on Wednesday night. Carlson brought Fox News reporter Matt Finn to discuss what happened. One of the banners on the screen reads, “Obscure lot count of T ET Troit.”
Finn rightly explained in his report that polling staff were concerned about leaking private voter information. But Carlos ended the segment blasting Detroit as “one of the most mismanaged places in the Western Hemisphere,” which now “helps you choose your president.”
Later that night, the reference that Finn made to Carlson was not included in the Fox News coverage of the story. Anchor Shannon Brim asked while publishing it on his show, “Why Windows? People just want to be confident. I’d love to hear it if there’s a better understanding.”
A Fox News spokesman on Thursday did not return a request for comment.
The story also found a place elsewhere in the right-wing media universe.
Bretbart’s article, which did not include a city disclosure that some windows were partially covered, was shared thousands of times by Trump.
It said Trump supporters had received “warnings” that “mail-in-ballot ots” have historically been considered “Democratic areas” as Trump’s lead evaporated. The story alleges that polling workers “tried to restrict transparency and allow outsiders to see what was going on in the counting area”, even though polling observers and journalists were allowed inside the room.
The Gateway Pundit story insisted that “the counting center was a scene of alleged irregularities and intimidation by Democrats conducting the counting.” It claimed that “Republican poll observers were routinely thrown out and windows were covered to block obstructions.”
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
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