Did a person outside a Detroit voting center at 4 a.m. witness and capture on videotape someone doing something sneaky or illegal under the cover of night? No, that's not true: This person saw an employee of ABC's Channel 7, WXYZ Detroit News Station, unloading and moving camera gear with a wagon.
The video was featured in an article published by www.thegatewaypundit.com on November 4, 2020, titled "WATCH: Suitcases and Coolers Rolled Into Detroit Voting Center at 4 AM, Brought Into Secure Counting Area" (archived here), which opened:
A poll watcher filmed highly suspicious activity at a vote-counting center in Detroit at 4 a.m., the morning after election day. In the footage, taken by Kellye SoRelle, a Texas lawyer and member of Lawyers for Trump, a person in a white van was filmed loading up a red wagon outside the ballot counting location...
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WATCH: Suitcases and Coolers Rolled Into Detroit Voting Center at 4 AM, Brought Into Secure Counting Area
A poll watcher filmed highly suspicious activity at a vote-counting center in Detroit at 4 a.m., the morning after election day. In the footage, taken by Kellye SoRelle, a Texas lawyer and member of Lawyers for Trump, a person in a white van was filmed loading up a red wagon outside the ballot counting location and bringing it instead.
SoRelle released the video to Texas Scorecard, because she wanted to raise "alarms that the box may have been a ballot box that arrived long after all ballots were expected to have been received at the counting facility.
Their report continues on to say that "according to SoRelle, visitors were able to enter and leave the facility where the votes are being counted without any identification check. The workers were apparently working in six-hour shifts, meaning they did not have a need for overnight luggage."
The clear up the confusion, WXYZ Detroit posted a photo of the wagon and equipment case to its Twitter account:
This is a wagon.
-- WXYZ Detroit (@wxyzdetroit) November 5, 2020
It is not "suspicious" equipment that was used to steal ballots.
Thanks for coming to our TED Talk.
STORY: https://t.co/aHO3Lw0UZupic.twitter.com/uFJabZqIhX
WXYZ also published a brief article titled, "Video falsely claims possible voter fraud in Detroit. It actually shows a WXYZ photographer loading camera gear." It explained:
(WXYZ) -- A video making the rounds on social media and other platforms that claims to show voter fraud and a wagon being loaded outside of the TCF Center in Detroit is actually video of a WXYZ photographer loading his camera and other gear into a wagon for work.
A conservative "news" site reports catching a man wheeling in "suspicious" equipment to the Detroit convention center, implying it was used to steal ballots.
-- Ross Jones (@rossjonesWXYZ) November 5, 2020
The "ballot thief" was my photographer. He was bringing down equipment for our 12-hour shift. https://t.co/4UsRdOncZ3
BuzzFeed included this item in the "Running List Of False And Misleading Information About The Election"
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes thegatewaypundit.com as:
A partisan conservative website that regularly publishes hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and unsubstantiated claims, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
