[ad_1]
Michigan officials have certified Democrat Joe Biden’s 154,000 vote victory in the US state amid brazen attempts by Donald Trump to subvert the results of the US presidential election.
The State Canvassing Board, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results in a 3-0 vote with one abstention.
Paul Sancya / AP
A rally outside the Richard H Austin State Office Building in Lansing, Michigan.
Trump’s allies and losing Republican Senate candidate John James had urged the panel to delay voting for two weeks to audit votes in the largely Democratic Wayne County, home to Detroit.
The move is another setback in Trump’s efforts to use unconventional means to undermine the results of the Nov.3 election and comes even after he made direct proposals to Republican officials in the state by inviting them to the White House the last week.
READ MORE:
* Elections in the United States: Michigan Republican leaders push to delay the certification of the vote
* Elections in the United States: Donald Trump resorts to old tactics to maintain power
* Joe Biden calls Trump the ‘most irresponsible president’
* Election in the United States: the Republican who asked to ‘rescind’ his vote by certifying the electoral results says that Trump called her
* Trump targets vote certification in late attempt to block Biden
Susan Walsh / AP
Certification in Michigan is another setback in President Donald Trump’s efforts to avoid the inevitable: the formal recognition of his defeat.
Under Michigan law, Biden claims all 16 electoral votes.
Biden won by 2.8 percentage points, a higher margin than in other states where Trump is contesting the results such as Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Some Trump allies had expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in the selection of Republican voters in states that do not certify. That risky gamble is no longer possible in Michigan.
Trump’s efforts to avoid the inevitable, the formal recognition of his defeat, met increasingly tough resistance from the courts and fellow Republicans with only three weeks left until the Electoral College meets to certify Biden’s victory.
Time and again, Trump’s challenges and baseless accusations of conspiracy and widespread fraud have been dismissed as states move forward in confirming their results.
The Michigan State Canvassing Board, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, certified the results despite calls from Trump and his allies to Republican members to block the vote to allow an audit of the Wayne County ballots, largely a Democrat, home to Detroit, where Trump has claimed without proof that he was the victim of fraud.
“The duty of the board today is very clear,” said Aaron Van Langevelde, the Republican vice president. “We have a duty to certify this election based on these results. That is very clear. We are limited to these returns. I am not going to argue that we are not.”
Mary Ellen Gurewitz, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party, told pollsters that the attacks on election results “are part of a racist campaign, led by future former President Trump, to discredit the cities of this country with large black populations, including Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee ”.
“Sometimes it feels like officials are trying to tear up my ballot right in front of me, stopping me and counting until they find a way to change the results,” said Douglas resident Wendy Gronbeck.
“I have been a voter for more than 50 years and have never had to think about whether the tellers will certify an election.”
Paul Sancya / AP
The Michigan State Canvassing Board, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, certified the results despite calls from Trump and his allies to Republican members to block the vote to allow an audit of the ballots.
Biden crushed Trump by more than 330,000 votes in Wayne County, where two local Republican tellers who certified the results tried unsuccessfully to reverse course last week after being called by Trump. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, has said that an audit should wait until after state certification because only then will officials have legal access to the documentation necessary to conduct such a review.
The Michigan elections office has recommended that the November 3 results be certified.
Norm Eisen, a constitutional law expert and former adviser to the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives, said there is no legal basis to do anything other than certify the election.
“That is the clear mandate of state law,” he said. Eisen dismissed several claims as to why a delay might be necessary, including the need for an audit or time to investigate so-called “out of balance” precincts.
“The reasons why they have moved forward to do something other than (certify) are totally false. They have no legal or factual weight under the law, ”Eisen added.
Trump has tried to challenge the election results through the courts, but having had no luck there, he went on to personally try to influence local lawmakers to convince them to ignore the popular vote and appoint Republican voters – a strategy he would send. Americans take to the streets in protest, election law experts have said.
Some Trump allies have expressed hope that state lawmakers will be able to intervene in the selection of Republican voters in states they do not certify, as the president and his attorneys have pushed for unsubstantiated allegations of fraud that have been repeatedly dismissed in the voting booths. audiences across the country. Trump met with Michigan’s top Republican lawmakers at the White House on Friday and tweeted over the weekend: “We will show unprecedented and massive fraud!”
Paul Sancya / AP
Trump has tried to challenge the election results through the courts, but having found no luck there, he went on to personally try to influence local lawmakers to convince them to ignore the popular vote.
If the board had delayed a vote or opposed the certification, a lawsuit was expected. Legal experts have said that the role of the scrutineers is limited and the courts would order them to confirm the results. Under state law, you have limited responsibility to review and certify the vote numbers for all 83 Michigan counties. It does not have the power to audit statements or investigate allegations of wrongdoing.
In Pennsylvania, a conservative Republican judge shot down the biggest Trump campaign legal effort in Pennsylvania with a scathing ruling that questioned why he was supposed to disenfranchise 7 million voters without evidence to back up his claims and argument. inept legal at best.
But attorneys still hope to block the state’s certification, quickly appealing to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, which ordered the attorneys to file a brief on Monday (local time) but declined to hear oral arguments.
The campaign, in their submissions, asked for urgent consideration so that they could question the results of the state elections before they are certified next month. Otherwise, they will seek to decertify them, depending on the filings.
And they insisted that they did not want to invalidate all 6.8 million votes cast in the state, as Brann concluded based on his arguments in court last week. Instead, they said, they are targeting only seven Democratic-leaning counties where they disagree with how mail-in ballots were handled.
“Appellants seek to exclude faulty mail ballots that overwhelmingly favored Biden, which may change the outcome of the election,” they said in a filing Monday.
Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes. The other litigation has failed to change a single vote.
Pennsylvania County Boards of Elections were voting Monday, the state deadline, on whether to certify election results to the State Department. The boards in two populous counties were divided along partisan lines, with majority Democrats in both places voting to certify. After all counties have submitted certified results to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, she must tabulate, calculate and poll the votes for all races. The law requires her to perform that task quickly, but does not set a specific deadline.
In Wisconsin, a recount in the state’s two largest Liberal counties advanced to its fourth day at a slow pace, and elections officials in Milwaukee County complained that Trump watchers were disrupting the process with frequent challenges. Trump’s hope of reversing Biden’s victory there hinges on the disqualification of thousands of absentee ballots, including the in-person absentee ballot issued by one of Trump’s Dane County campaign attorneys.
Associated Press writers Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia, Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Christina A Cassidy in Atlanta, and John Flesher in Traverse City, Michigan contributed to this report.
