Lansing — Dominion Voting Systems is demanding that Patrick Colbeck, a former Michigan lawmaker, retract “false claims” he’s been making about the company in PowerPoint presentations.
Dominion sent Colbeck, who’s from Canton, a letter on Friday, according to a document obtained by The Detroit News. The company says Colbeck is waging a “disinformation campaign” while touring Michigan to give presentations entitled “Case for MI Decertification,” which blames Dominion for “stealing the election” from former President Donald Trump.
“You are knowingly sowing discord in our democracy, all the while soliciting exorbitant amounts of money — totaling over $1 million so far — from your audiences paid directly to your personal business,” says the letter signed by attorneys Thomas Clare and Megan Meier.
At one point, the letter vows, “Make no mistake — Dominion will hold you accountable for these lies.”
Colbeck didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.
The former lawmaker is an influential figure among conservative GOP groups in Michigan. He came in third place in the GOP primary race for governor in 2018 with 13% of the vote. Then-Attorney General Bill Schuette received 51%, and then-Lt. Gov. Brian Calley got 25%.
Colbeck has spoken at multiple rallies at the state Capitol in recent months, including a Jan. 6 event where he told the crowd that Democrat Joe Biden, who beat Trump by 154,000 votes in Michigan, wasn’t the president-elect.
“It is propaganda. They are trying to convince you of that,” he said.
Colbeck also presented at a Dec. 1 Michigan Senate hearing, where he asserted that election equipment at TCF Center in Detroit allowed fraud to take place. TCF Center is where absentee ballots were counted in Michigan’s largest city, which is also a Democratic stronghold.
He was the first person to appear before the Senate Oversight Committee on Dec. 1 as the panel took more than six hours of testimony Tuesday. He criticized the media and claimed there was “rampant” voter fraud.
“What I hope to provide you today is just a snippet of information that indicates it was rampant,” Colbeck told lawmakers. “It doesn’t have to be rampant to be significant.”
Dominion is a company that provides voting technology in states across the country. Its equipment is used in 66 of Michigan’s 83 counties, according to its website. The company has been at the center of unproven claims of voter fraud levied by supporters of Trump, including Colbeck. However, recounts, expert analyses and judicial rulings have discredited many of the allegations.
According to the new letter from Dominion, Colbeck has been giving presentations that feature information that’s been “repeatedly debunked by bipartisan election officials, actual election security experts, judges and numerous Trump administration officials and allies.”
The letter says Colbeck is claiming that tabulators and computers used in Detroit’s election were connected to the internet, which “led to the…
