In a sharp turnaround, Michigan’s largest county on Tuesday night unanimously certified election results showing Democrat Joe Biden defeating President Donald Trump, hours after Republicans first blocked formal approval of the intentions. of voters.
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The initial move was quickly condemned by Democrats, election experts and viewers at the Wayne County Board of Polls online meeting as a dangerous attempt to block the results of a free and fair election.
“We depend on democratic norms, including that the losers graciously accept defeat. That seems to be collapsing, ”said Joshua Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky.
The state’s vote certification process is often routine, and the final resolution in Wayne County propels Biden to formal victory in Michigan. Still, Tuesday’s chaotic events are likely to cast further doubt among Trump supporters about the election results and could prompt Republicans in other states to try to find ways to slow down the final steps to make his defeat official.
Republicans are also trying to stop the formal certification of election results in other swing states, including Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Biden crushed Trump in Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold, by more than a 2-1 margin and won Michigan by 146,000 votes, according to unofficial results. His victory reversed Trump’s surprise gains in 2016 in the industrial Midwest and put Biden on a path to clearing the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.
Still, Trump and his allies have launched a series of unfounded attacks on the integrity of the election and numerous lawsuits aimed at slowing down the formal vote certification process. Each state certifies its electoral results and the Electoral College meets on December 14 to codify the results.
In Michigan, Trump allies and Republican opponents of the election have spent days initiating litigation without success. They alleged fraud during the absentee vote count at a Detroit convention center, but two justices found no evidence and refused to stop the counting process.
In that context, the Wayne County Board of Electors met Tuesday. In a rare and extraordinary move, they did not bless the will of Detroit-area voters. Instead, the panel was split on a 2-2 vote, with Republicans voting against certifying the results.
Monica Palmer, one of the two Republicans, said voting books in certain districts of Detroit, a majority black city, were out of balance. Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat on the panel, said the discrepancies were the result of “human error” and called it “reckless and irresponsible” not to certify the results.
There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Michigan or any other state. Federal and state officials from both parties have stated that the 2020 elections are safe and secure.
Still, Trump has spent the two weeks since Election Day raising false allegations of voter fraud and refusing to give in to Biden. He enjoyed the initial developments in Michigan, tweeting: “Having courage is a beautiful thing.”
But the broader condemnation was swift, including by online viewers of the meeting, who criticized Palmer and fellow Republican William Hartmann during a public comment period on Zoom.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, a well-known pastor and director of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, called his actions “shameful.”
“You took a black city out of a county and said the only culprits is the city of Detroit, where 80% of the people who reside here are African-American. You should be ashamed of yourself! “Anthony said, raising his voice.
Ned Staebler, vice president of Wayne State University in Detroit, said: “The stain of racism that you, William Hartmann and Monica Palmer, just covered will follow you throughout history.”
Law student Joseph Zimmerman, a veteran, told colporteurs that it “breaks my heart” to see them undermine the “sacred right” to vote.
After the meeting, Hartmann said the intense criticism did not lead him to change his vote. Rather, he said he acted because the board agreed to ask the secretary of state to investigate the results of the Detroit election.
Certification of the November 3 election results in each of Michigan’s 83 counties is a step toward state certification by the Michigan State Board of Canvass and the eventual award of 16 electoral votes.
“I’m glad to see common sense prevailed in the end,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said after Wayne County’s reversal. “Thank you to all the citizens who spoke with such passion. You made the difference! “
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes called the initial 2-2 vote “blatant racism.”
At least six lawsuits related to the Michigan elections have been filed, the latest of which reached federal court on Sunday. The issues raised by Trump’s allies are typical of every election: issues with signatures, secret envelopes, and postage marks on vote-by-mail ballots, as well as the possibility of a small number of ballots being lost or are emitted wrong.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Republican Party asked a judge to bar Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state, from certifying until the court issues a decision on the party’s lawsuit seeking a manual recount of a sample of ballots. . In a more rural county, Mohave, voter certification was delayed until November 23 in a sign of solidarity with the remaining electoral challenges in the state.
Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, walked into a courtroom for the first time in decades on Tuesday to argue in Pennsylvania that certification should be delayed over voter fraud concerns, although widespread fraud was not reported.
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