Paul Sancya/AP
- Michigan’s four-member Board of State Canvassers voted on Monday to formally certify the state’s 16 Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden.
- Democrats Jeanette Bradshaw and Julie Matuzak and Republican Aaron Van Langevelde voted to certify, while Republican Norman Shinkle abstained.
- The board heard over three hours of testimony and public comments from current and former election officials, party officials, and members of the public before taking a vote on certification.
- Michigan’s statewide certification is the latest failure of the Trump campaign, which filed multiple lawsuits to overturn his electoral defeat.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Michigan’s four-member Board of State Canvassers voted on Monday to formally certify the state’s 16 Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, marking President Donald Trump’s latest failure overturn election results in key states.
Biden won Michigan by 156,643 votes — a margin of 2.8 percentage points — over Trump, according to Decision Desk HQ. That result far surpasses the 10,704 vote margin by which Trump carried Michigan in 2016.
After hearing over three hours of testimony from election and campaign officials, and members of the public, three members of the board — the minimum threshold required – voted to certify the results.
Both Democratic board members, Chairwoman Jeanette Bradshaw and Julie Matuzak, as well as Republican Aaron Van Langevelde voted in favor of certification. Republican Norman Shinkle abstained.
If the board had deadlocked along partisan lines, the matter would have immediately gone to the courts, which could then have ordered the board to certify the results, CNN reported.
A number of current and former election officials, including former state elections director Chris Thomas, former Detriot elections director Daniel Baxter, and former Board of State Canvassers member Jeff Timmer, testified in support of the board certifying the election.
Current officials who were in favor of the move included the state’s Bureau of Elections director Jonathan Brater, Detriot City Clerk Janice Winfrey, Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope, Ingraham County Clerk Barb Byrum, and Livonia City Clerk Susan Nash.
Laura Cox, representing the state Republican Party, and former GOP Senate candidate John James’ attorney, Charles Spies, testified in opposition and asked the board to delay certification pending further review of what they described as abnormalities in reporting of votes and exclusion of Republican poll observers.
Van Langevelde appeared skeptical of arguments from GOP lawyers that the law gives the Board of State Canvassers authority to independently request audits and further review the results of the election before certification. A candidate can only request a recount after certification.
«We can agree to disagree, but I think the law is on my side here,» Van Langevelde told Spiers, the James’ campaign lawyer. «Our duty is very simple, and it’s a duty. We have no authority to request an audit, to delay or block certification, or to review inaccuracies that happened at the local level. Those results have been certified. Our duty is to look at the certified results, look at the math, and then certify. The statute couldn’t be more clear.»
Trump and his allies lost or withdrew all four of the major lawsuits they filed in Michigan seeking to halt the counting of ballots or to stop certification, according to Insider’s Jacob Shamsian.
With the Trump campaign’s legal challenges failing in court, Trump and his allies have attempted to directly compel local and state election officials to draw out the process further by declining to certify election results. Michigan’s certification of its statewide election results is a major setback for the Trump campaign.
In a particularly dramatic incident last week, the canvassing board in Wayne County, Michigan, deadlocked on whether to certify the county’s election results, with two Republican members initially opposing certification, reversing course and agreeing to certify the results after a public outcry, and the next day, signing affidavits indicating they wanted to take back their votes, which have already been sent to the state.
States have already certified presidential election results in 13 states, including the battlegrounds of Florida, Georgia, and New Hampshire, according to the Cook Political Report.
Also on Monday, all 15 counties in Arizona certified their election results, setting the stage for state certification by next week, and Pennsylvania’s counties are also in the process of certifying results.