An article from the conservative news website The Gateway Pundit claims that a video from the TCF Center where Detroit election workers counted absentee ballots cast by the city’s voters "shows late night deliveries of tens of thousands of illegal ballots 8 hours after deadline."
The article claims that the video is "proof of fraud in Detroit." The video appears to show a white van at the TCF Center early in the morning on Nov. 4 containing ballots that were unloaded and brought into the counting room at the TCF Center. There is no evidence of anything nefarious.
In Michigan, voters had until 8 p.m. on Election Day to return absentee ballots. The deadline was for casting ballots, not delivering or counting them.
A sworn affidavit written by Christopher Thomas, the former Michigan Director of Elections who worked at the TCF Center, in response to a lawsuit against the city says that no late-arriving ballots were ever counted.
"No absentee ballots received after the deadline of 8 p.m. on November 3, 2020, were received by or processed at the TCF Center. Only ballots received by the deadline were processed," Thomas wrote.
Many Republican challengers present at the TCF Center have said that they observed ballots being dropped off at the TCF Center in the middle of the night. Thomas wrote that their accounts do not support the claim that thousands of ballots cast after the 8 p.m. deadline were counted.
Detroit voters could return absentee ballots by mail to the clerk’s office, in-person or utilize one of the city’s many ballot drop boxes until that deadline.