Michigan state board certifies Biden’s victory

A Biden spokesperson said of the Michigan election results: “We appreciate the state board’s recognition of the clear facts: President-elect Joe Biden emphatically won the state of Michigan by more than 150,000 votes, 14 times Donald’s margin. Trump in 2016. “

The Trump campaign said it was not done with the fight against the election result.

“Certification by state officials is simply a procedural step,” said Trump campaign legal counsel Jenna Ellis. “We will continue to combat electoral fraud across the country as we fight to count all legal votes. Americans must be assured that the end results are fair and legitimate.”

Michigan votes to certify

There was uncertainty about Michigan’s canvassing board meeting on Monday. The board is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, and one of the Republican board members indicated that he would be opposed to certifying the result of the election.

Aaron Van Langevelde, the other Republican board member, had not shaken hands before the meeting, but noted how he would vote quickly after it started. Van Langevelde said he believed he was required to certify the vote under state law, regardless of whether he believed there should be an audit of Wayne County election results. He supported an audit, he said, but that doesn’t mean the board should wait to certify the election first.

“We must not try to exercise power that we do not have,” he said.

Norman Shinkle, the second board member of the Republican Party, abstained in the final vote. He argued that the board should not certify the election results until an investigation into voting in Wayne County, the largest in the state, which includes Detroit, is completed. Shinkle called on the Republican-led Michigan legislature to create a bipartisan commission to conduct a review of the 2020 election, which all board members endorsed, at a time of bipartisanship. The legislature has already launched an investigation into the state election, conducted by the Joint House and Senate Oversight Committee.

While Democratic board member Julie Matuzak supported the certification, she called for the state’s electoral system to be modernized. Matuzak said that while he did not believe there was any fraud in the November elections, the state needed to allow the processing of absentee ballots earlier, modernize the way poll workers and challengers are trained, and allow unbalanced constituencies to be counted in order to eliminate some of the human error that still exists.

‘The law is pretty clear here’

Before the vote, the board heard from election officials such as local clerks, campaign attorneys and other experts, which Van Langevelde requested before voting. He revealed his view of the rules governing the board through his discussion of the board’s role with an attorney for Republican Senate candidate John James, who argued that the canvassing board could adjourn the session and wait for the results. of an audit before certifying the results.

“I didn’t find anything about the authority to delay certification,” he said. “I didn’t find anything that gives us the authority to review fraud complaints. I mean, I think the law is pretty clear here, and again this board has such limited authority.”

Shinkle sought at the meeting to ask questions of Detroit City Secretary Janice Winfrey, who was initially not scheduled to speak but appeared on video, like other witnesses, after a brief recess. Shinkle asked if the city had hired enough Republican poll workers for the elections as required by state law, claiming that Republicans who tried to work at the polls were denied.

Winfrey responded that the city had hired as many Republicans as it could, but those who applied too late were not allowed to accept the job.

Republican and Democratic state and local officials appeared on video to speak at the meeting. When a Republican repeated debunked conspiracy theories about the vote count, one of the members of the Democratic board asked if the allegations had been presented to the attorney general, because the canvassing board could not investigate those claims.

Brendan Flynn, who was an election contender at the TCF Center in Detroit where absentee ballots were counted, spoke about what he observed on Election Day. “The only interruptions that I observed throughout the day were from Republican challengers, who were having a hard time following the rules,” Flynn said. “The conclusion was that there was nothing irregular or fraudulent in what I observed at the TCF center on November 3.”

Trump has refused to budge

This was not the first drama-filled meeting about the typically pro forma certification of election results in Michigan. Last week, Republican members of the Wayne County canvassing board initially voted against certification, blocking certification, before voting in favor hours later after a public uproar. Members of the Republican Party board received a call from Trump that night, and the next day they filed affidavits seeking to rescind their votes, which they were unable to do.

The Trump campaign has tried to interfere with the certification process through lawsuits and Trump has courted Michigan officials as he and attorney Rudy Giuliani continue to allege widespread election fraud and a “rigged election” without evidence.

The Republican National Committee and the Michigan Republican Party sent a letter to the canvassing board Saturday asking them to delay certification for 14 days. They were also asked to wait for an audit of the election results in Wayne County, the largest county in the state that includes Detroit, although state law does not allow it.

After the state board certified the election result Monday, Senate Republican Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, who met with Trump last week, thanked the canvassing board. “The Senate will honor your unanimous request to closely review Michigan’s electoral process to identify much-needed improvements,” he said.