‘THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN’
Michigan electors unanimously cast 16 votes to officially certify Biden and Harris win
Michigan’s slate of 16 presidential electors unanimously voted Monday at the Capitol building in Lansing for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris.
The vote was announced by Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, who presided over a scaled-back, socially distanced Electoral College ceremony inside the Michigan Senate chambers. Also in attendance were Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Bridget McCormack, chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
The Capitol was closed to the public for coronavirus restrictions. The Michigan House and Senate also closed their downtown Lansing offices because of credible threats of violence. Electors and others were escorted to the Statehouse by state police.
“The people have spoken,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, who delivered remarks in which she noted that a record 5.5 million Michigan voters cast ballots in the election despite the pandemic. “It was a safe, secure and fair election.”
Despite the popular vote and unsuccessful lawsuits to reverse the results for Biden, more than a dozen Republican legislators tried to enter the Capitol in an apparent attempt to submit their own electoral votes for Trump. Because the capitol was closed, the state police would not let them in.
“We’re electors,” the Republicans said.
“The electors are already here,” a state police officer said.
“They’ve been checked in.”
Two of Michigan’s presidential electors included Northville resident Susan Nichols, elector for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, and Huntington Woods resident Sharon Baseman, elector for Michigan’s 9th Congressional District.
Nichols told The Oakland Press she was concerned about her safety after threats, but added that she was proud to be an elector and to be “a part of history.” Along with police escort into the Capitol, Nichols and the other electors were also offered a police escort out of Lansing, which Nichols took.
“I also think that the Electoral College should be abolished,” she said. “Every vote should be equal. The person with the most votes should be declared the winner... What is so disturbing is that our Republican legislators refuse to confirm the results of this election and thereby spur on the protests, threats, and violence. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Michigan lawmakers from both parties have reported receiving threats amid President Donald Trump’s futile bid to overturn the election results.
Baseman was unanimously approved at the Monday meeting to replace Ferndale resident Walter Herzig, who resigned as an elector several weeks ago after it was determined he could not serve as an elector due to his federal job. Herzig serves as district director for U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Bloomfield Township). Under Michigan election law, no one “holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.”
Last week, Herzig was contacted by Lavora Barnes, chair of Michigan’s Democratic Party, who informed him that he could not serve as an elector. In August, when Herzig was nominated and elected to serve as an elector at the Michigan Democratic Party convention, Herzig told The Oakland Press he was not aware of the law’s language that he could not serve.
“My vote could have been challenged on Jan. 6 when Congress reviews the ballots,” he said. “That was the concern. My vote could have been invalidated. Once I learned of this issue, I resigned my position as an elector to ensure that there could be no question about the validity of every one of Michigan’s 16 electoral votes. The electors selected Sharon Baseman, a dedicated activist and volunteer, to represent the 9th District in my place.”
The Oakland Press was not able to contact with representatives at the Michigan Democratic Party in time for publication.
The state presidential electors unanimously voting for President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, essentially ends the 2020 election season in Michigan. Copies of the ballots will be sent to Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the National Archives and Records Administration, and Robert Yonker, chief judge of the U.S. District Court-Western District of Michigan. On Jan. 6, the 117th Congress will convene in a joint session to review and count the electoral college ballots from all 50 states.
Following the electoral college meeting and casting ballots in all 50 states, Biden spoke Monday night from Wilmington, Delaware. He said in America, “politicians don’t take power, the people grant it to them.”
“In this battle for the soul of America, Democracy prevailed,” he said. “‘ We the People’ voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal. As I said through this campaign, I will be a president for all Americans. I will work just as hard for those of you who didn’t vote for me, as I will for those who did.”
Biden added “The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing — not even a pandemic — or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame.”
Citing baseless allegations of widespread fraud, Trump and his allies had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Biden’s 154,000-vote, or 2.8-percentage point, victory in Michigan. Recently, Trump and his allies pushed the Republican-led Legislature to choose electors.
The supreme court rejected the president’s bid on Friday. Michigan Republican legislative leaders, after meeting with Trump, said they would honor the election results and pointed to a state law that stipulates that electoral votes go to the popular vote winner. The state certified Biden’s win two weeks ago — one that was more than 14 times bigger than Trump’s surprise, 10,700-vote margin over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.