Michigan election panel rejects Trump appeals, certifies results
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan election officials on Monday certified Democrat Joe Biden’s 154,000vote victory in the state, another defeat for President Trump in his futile effort to undermine the results of the Nov. 3 election through baseless legal challenges and unsupported claims of fraud.
The Board of State Canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results on a 30 vote with one abstention. Allies of Trump and losing GOP Senate candidate John James had urged the panel to delay voting for two weeks to audit votes in heavily Democratic Wayne County, home to Detroit.
Under Michigan law, Biden claims all 16 electoral votes. Biden won by 2.8 percentage points — a larger margin than in other states where Trump is contesting the results like Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Some Trump allies had expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in selecting Republican electors in states that do not certify. That longshot bid is no longer possible in Michigan.
Trump’s efforts to stave off the inevitable — formal recognition of his defeat — is facing increasingly stiff resistance from the courts and fellow Republicans with just three weeks to go until the Electoral College meets to certify Biden’s victory. Time and again, Trump’s challenges and baseless allegations of widespread conspiracy and fraud have been met with rejection.
Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers certified the results despite calls by Trump and allies to the GOP members to block the vote to allow for an audit of ballots in Wayne County, where Trump has claimed without evidence that he was the victim of fraud.
Biden crushed the president by more than 330,000 votes there.
Mary Ellen Gurewitz, an attorney for the state Democratic Party, told the canvassers that attacks on the election results “are part of a racist campaign, directed by soontobe former President Trump, to disparage the cities in this country with large Black populations, including Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.”
Trump has tried to defy the results of the election through the courts, but having found no luck there, moved on to personally trying to influence local lawmakers to convince them to ignore the popular vote and appoint Republican electors. Two local GOP canvassers who certified the results unsuccessfully tried to reverse course last week after being called by Trump.