<p><img src="https://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5fc1713050e71a0011557c38-2400/GettyImages-1229768128.jpg" border="0" alt="GettyImages 1229768128" data-mce-source="Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Sidney Powell"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>A witness in a lawsuit from allies of President Donald Trump trying to overturn democracy in Michigan said that the vote count in Edison County "are cause for concern and indicate fraud" because President-elect Joe Biden won "more than 100% of the votes."</p><p>There's just one problem: There is no Edison County in Michigan, the <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/12/01/election-lawsuit-cites-fraud-michigan-county-does-not-exist/6475368002/">Detroit Free Press</a> pointed out.</p><p>In fact, there is <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-counties-total.html">no Edison County</a>in the entire United States of America.</p><p>The claim comes from Navid Keshavarz-Nia, who describes himself in the affidavit as a cybersecurity expert working at a defense contractor and has received training from several government agencies. The affidavit is included as <a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20418343-navid-keshavarz-nia-sidney-powell-michigan-affidavit">an exhibit</a> appended to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sidney-powell-hypes-election-lawsuit-despite-trump-disowning-2020-11">a lawsuit</a> filed last week by people working with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sidney-powell-bio-life-trump-election-fraud-allegations-2020-11">Sidney Powell</a>, a former member of the Trump campaign's legal team.</p><p>Keshavarz-Nia's nonsensical claim about Edison County drew widespread attention with a tweet from Jonathan Oosting, a reporter at the nonprofit news organization Bridge Michigan.</p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation=""><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One of the witnesses in Sidney Powells new Michigan lawsuit says in a declaration he thinks theres something fishy about election returns in Edison County, MI. Thing is, there is no Edison County in Michigan. <a href="https://t.co/yZfDWMAFSP">pic.twitter.com/yZfDWMAFSP</a></p> Jonathan Oosting (@jonathanoosting) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1333535486690910210'ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sidney-powell-hypes-election-lawsuit-despite-trump-disowning-2020-11">typo-peppered lawsuit</a> makes many of the same wildly conspiratorial arguments Powell made at a press conference that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-purges-conspiracy-theorist-attorney-sidney-powell-2020-11">led to her ouster from Trump's legal team</a>: That the now-dead Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez used voting machines to manipulate election results in his own country, and the very same machines are now being used to manipulate 2020 election results. There's no evidence of the claim, and the companies named in Powell's lawsuits <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dominion-voting-systems-slams-sidney-powell-election-lawsuit-2020-11">have debunked</a> the arguments made in her lawsuits.</p><h2>The witness says he hasn't actually looked at the voting machines</h2><p>In the affidavit, Keshavarz-Nia sais he has not analyzed any of the voting machines used in the 2020 election but argued there's "evidence of fraud" based on his analysis of election data.</p><p>Much of that data is simply false or based on a misunderstanding of how election data is reported.</p><p>It's not clear if Keshavarz-Nia had another county in mind when referring to a vote count of more than 100% in "Edison County," but some internet sleuths have made claims about more than 100% of particular counties voting by <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/08/fact-check-post-argues-states-have-more-votes-than-voters/6191399002/">relying on outdated voter record information</a> or <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fact-check-gwinnett-county-ga-ballots/fact-check-gwinnett-county-ga-did-not-have-more-ballots-cast-than-registered-voters-in-the-general-election-idUSKBN27Q2PU">simply using the wrong datasets</a>, USA Today and Reuters have reported.</p><p>In another part of the affidavit, Keshavarz-Nia writes that President Donald Trump's lead in Pennsylvania dropped at a rate faster than votes can be counted. But the votes were simply reported by precincts in the timespan he indicates, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/election-results-may-take-longer-in-michigan-pennsylvania-wisconsin-2020-10">not actually counted at that time</a>.</p><p><img src="https://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5fc67477037cbd0018613203-2223/sidney%20powell.jpg" border="0" alt="sidney powell" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin" data-mce-caption="Members of President Donald Trump's legal team, Sidney Powell, right, with Jenna Ellis, left, attend a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Thursday Nov. 19, 2020, in Washington."></p><p>Even though Keshavarz-Nia testified to not analyzing the machines used in the 2020 election, Powell's lawsuit cites his affidavit to argue that "hundreds of thousands of votes that were cast for President Trump in the 2020 general election were transferred to former Vice-President Biden"which is not true.</p><p>The lawsuit ultimately asks a federal judge to force Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to ignore voters and "transmit certified election results that state that President Donald Trump is the winner of the election."</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michigan-canvassing-board-certifies-election-results-for-joe-biden-2020-11">Michigan has already certified its election results</a>, granting its 16 electoral votes to Biden. The Trump campaign itself <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.miwd.99598/gov.uscourts.miwd.99598.33.0.pdf">withdrew a federal lawsuit trying to challenge the state's election results</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-lawsuits-election-results-2020-11">three other lawsuits filed by Republican-aligned groups failed</a>, with the judges overseeing the cases finding no evidence of fraud.</p><p>Keshavarz-Nia couldn't be reached for comment, and Powell did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sidney-powell-bio-life-trump-election-fraud-allegations-2020-11">Meet Sidney Powell, the former federal prosecutor turned conspiracy theorist who's fueling baseless claims about election fraud</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dominion-voting-systems-slams-sidney-powell-election-lawsuit-2020-11">Dominion Voting Systems tore into Sidney Powell's lawsuit accusing it of a vast conspiracy, calling it 'baseless, senseless, physically impossible'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lost-patience-with-conspiracy-theorist-attorney-powell-nyt-2020-11">Trump axed campaign lawyer Sidney Powell because 'she was too conspiratorial even for him,' report says</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-lawsuits-election-results-2020-11">Trump and his allies have won zero out at least 26 lawsuits they've filed since Election Day</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sidney-powell-election-lawsuit-witness-vote-problems-edison-county-2020-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/london-streets-left-deserted-during-covid-19-lockdown-2020-3">Inside London during COVID-19 lockdown</a></p>
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