Article from Philip Bump’s Saturday WASHINGTON POST newsletter

The main predicate President Donald Trump cited as his rationale for having federal officials seize every voting machine in the nation as part of his doomed effort to prove that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him was that Sheryl Guy had forgotten to update something on her computer.

Not directly, of course. In a draft executive order obtained by Politico, her mistake is framed as part of a sweeping international conspiracy to hijack the election to Trump’s detriment. Dated Dec. 16, 2020, here’s how it articulates the mistake in Michigan’s Antrim County, where Guy served as county clerk.

“I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, find that the forensic report of the Antrim County, Michigan voting machines, released December 13, 2020, and other evidence submitted to me in support of this order, provide probable cause sufficient to require action under the authorities cited above because of evidence of international and foreign interference in the November 3, 2020, election.”

Sheryl Guy was in line at McDonald’s the morning after the election when someone texted her that the figures released to the press had to be wrong, Trump won the state, again, and likely won Antrim county, again. When she got to the office, she checked – and found her mistake in the spreadsheet’s automatic calculations – and put out correct numbers showing Trump’s victory in the county.

No international conspiracy. Taken care of quick and easy. No crime. No foul.