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The divided four-party panel certifying the presidential elections in Michigan voted 3-1 Monday afternoon to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the popular vote in the swing state.
The vote is yet another blow to Donald Trump’s lobbying campaign to overturn the presidential election, which includes mounting various lawsuits in battle states like Michigan.
Michigan State Board of Electors Vice Chairman Norman Shinkle, a Republican, voiced his objections to the certification of Biden’s victory due to irregularities and errors in the voting and tabulation process, and voted to abstain on Monday.
After listening to the employees and volunteers who worked and observed the tabulation of the ballot, all four members voted to certify the election.
Shinkle’s Republican panel member Aaron Van Langevelde voted to certify the election, but maintained that a post-election audit is needed. He also said that any allegation of voter fraud should be investigated and, if found, processed.
Before the vote, there were concerns that split panel members could find themselves at a standstill, resulting in a certification delay as President Donald Trump’s continued pressure for undecided state Republicans to back up his claims of fraud. widespread electoral.
Shinkle, 70, said before the vote and during remarks during the proceedings on Monday that he is concerned about the integrity of the election and suggested he was considering forcing a delay in the certification of Biden’s victory.
He shared that he has questions about electronic equipment used in Michigan elections, the absentee and mail voting process, and transparency issues.
The Michigan State Board of Polls voted 3-1 Monday to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the state with Republican member Norman Shinkle, 70, who abstained over concerns with voting by mail and transparency.
His fellow Republican Aaron Van Langevelde voted to certify the election, eliminating concerns of a deadlock in the four-person divided panel.
Both Democratic members of the Michigan State Board of Canvass, Julie Matuzak (right) and panel chair Jeannette Bradshaw (left), voted to certify Biden’s results.
Shinkle’s opposition to a possible certification bloc would only be possible if Van Langevelde joined him in not approving Biden’s victory, creating a deadlock with the two Democratic members: Julie Matuzak and President Jeannette Bradshaw.
Van Langevelde, 40, a lawyer and former assistant district attorney who lives with his wife Adrianne in Charlotte, Michigan, has not said how he plans to vote.
Shinkle lives in Williamson, Michigan with his second wife, Mary. He has two children, Teddy and Douglas, by his first wife Linda.
Mary Shinkle was a Republican election observer at the Detroit Transportation Services Center for four days around the election. He stated that there was a strange matter in that tabulation place.
Mary was one of more than 200 people who signed an affidavit alleging errors and crimes that they said they witnessed during the Wayne County ballot tabulation.
The Trump campaign used this affidavit in one of its federal lawsuits, which has since been withdrawn.
In her affidavit, Mary said she looked at a precinct-specific tabulation table on Election Day that doubled their ballot counts. They also told him that the ‘table captain’ told him that he was not allowed to look at the ballots because “if we were wrong, you would overtake us.”
He also expressed concern about the ballots being left unattended in unsecured bags at their specific Wayne County site.
The wife of the Republican member of the State Canvassing Board also said that on November 4, the day after the election, poll workers were “extremely rude and aggressive” to observers.
After the election, pro-Trump protests erupted near the voting tabulation sites, demanding that the accountants ‘stop stealing’ or stop counting the ballots received by mail after Election Day.
Michigan turned blue this year, and current reports show 50.6 percent of the vote for Biden and 47.8 percent for Trump. In 2016, the status turned red for Trump.
The president, however, has questioned the integrity of the results in the Rustbelt battlefield status this year, claiming there was a strange issue with the tabulation and it did not allow Republican election observers to be close enough to observe the process. of vote counting.
Shinkle’s wife, Linda, was a Republican election observer in Detroit, and scorched an affidavit used by the Trump campaign in a lawsuit since withdrawn alleging errors and misdeeds in the tabulation of the ballot.
Shinkle (left) pictured with George HW Bush and his two sons Teddy and Douglas, whom he had with his first wife Linda (right)
Generally, the signature to certify the winner of the presidential election in a specific state is a routine event, but as is normal in the course of 2020, not this year.
Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, Van Langevelde’s boss, flew to Washington, DC on Friday with six other Republican lawmakers to meet with Trump and members of his team on Friday. He was also seen enjoying drinks at the Trump Hotel just blocks from the White House over the weekend.
After the meeting, Chatfield and State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, both Republicans, said they had not been “informed of any information that could change the outcome of the Michigan election.”
“There was this outrage that the president was going to ask us to break the law, he was going to ask us to interfere, and that just didn’t happen,” Chatfield told Fox News in describing the meeting.
Michigan’s election agency has already recommended that the board certify the results of the presidential elections, showing Biden with a 2.8 percent margin of victory.
The Republican National Committee and the Michigan Republican Party, however, are urging the board to suspend the session for 14 days to investigate alleged wrongdoing in Wayne County, the state’s largest area, which encompasses Detroit.
The president of the National Committee Republican, Ronna McDaniel, a resident of Michigan, and Laura Cox, president of the Republican Party of Michigan, wrote to the board on Saturday asking him to delay certification for another two weeks while awaiting the results of an audit.
They cited “procedural and accounting irregularities” as discrepancies between the number of people registered casting votes in Detroit’s districts and the actual number of votes counted.
Secretary of State of Michigan, Jocelyn Benson says they are preparing post-election audits, even in Wayne County, Michigan although the law provides that such audits can be performed only after the results are certified.
Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Rep. Jim Lilly, both Republicans, were photographed Friday night enjoying a bottle of Dom Perignon at the Trump Hotel’s Benjamin Bar & Lounge.
The group reportedly stayed at the hotel drinking until midnight.
The celebratory drinks came hours after Chatfield and Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey met with Trump as part of the president’s move to try to reverse Joe Biden’s victory in the popular vote in Michigan.
Chatfield said that if the State Board of Pollsters does not confirm the results and the Michigan Supreme Court does not order it to do so, there will be a “constitutional crisis.”
But the Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, among other Republicans, has vowed not to go against the voters or undermine their will.
The new request to delay certification comes after a two-week period in which Michigan checked twice ballots in 83 counties and found some inaccuracies and irregularities occurring expected in most elections. Errors were corrected.
During such a partisan time in American history, experts wonder if a divided panel of four is still a realistic way to certify election results as a potential deadlock occurs. Some say there needs to be some kind of built-in tiebreaker, as in other states like Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
