Republican leaders ask Michigan election board to
delay certification of results, in latest GOP effort to cast doubt on the vote
By Kayla Ruble,
Tom Hamburger and
November 21, 2020 at 2:23 p.m. CST
The
heads of the Republican National Committee and Michigan Republican Party issued
a joint statement Saturday calling for Michigan’s state canvassing board to
delay certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state,
marking the latest attempt by GOP leaders to intervene in the state’s electoral
process.
In the letter —
signed by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is from Michigan, and state GOP
Chair Laura Cox — the officials ask the canvassing board to adjourn for 14 days
and allow for a “full audit and investigation” before they convene to certify
the state’s election results, a procedural step that is set to take place
Monday afternoon.
“This
board faces a stark choice,” the letter reads, citing claims of “numerical
anomalies” and “procedural irregularities” that they say would leave “the
distrust and sense of procedural disenfranchisement felt by many Michigan
voters to fester for years” if ignored by the board.
The letter
has increased worries among state Democratic leaders that Republicans may block
certification Monday. They have begun drafting legal documents and detailed
contingency plans in the event the board fails to certify. Among the options
being considered is for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to replace the GOP members
using her executive authority, or to ask a judge to compel the board to certify
the results, said a current and former Democratic official, speaking on the
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on
this matter.
“There
is absolutely no legal basis for the Republican canvassers to abandon their
responsibility to certify the general election result — that was a fair, free
and secure election — as required by statute,” Christine Greig, Michigan’s
House Democratic leader, said in a statement Friday. She said the delays in
declaring the results official — particularly those related to vote counting in
Detroit — are rooted in racism and could be a “stunt” to influence selection of
the state’s presidential electors.
McDaniel
and Cox’s demand for scrutiny is entirely focused on the election results in
Wayne County, Michigan’s largest and most Democratic county, which includes
Detroit.
Detroit
election officials and Democratic lawyers dispute the accounts of widespread
irregularities.
Wayne
County officials have noted discrepancies in the vote count in a number of
precincts. But they said the size of the errors was small — a difference of one
or two votes per precinct, affecting a total of
about 450 votes. Biden leads the state
by about 150,000 votes.
In a
tweet Friday, Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state suggested an audit such
as the one requested by McDaniel and Cox would not be allowed under state law,
which does not allow for the necessary records to be released until after the
state certifies the results.
“Not
sure who needs to hear this, but under state law (MCL 168.31a) audits can only
be conducted after the State Canvassers certify the election,” Secretary of
State Jocelyn Benson wrote. “This is [because] election officials do not have
legal access to the documents needed to complete audits until the
certification.”
Still,
the demand by the two GOP leaders increases the pressure on the two Republican
members of the four-member Board of Canvassers, whose actions Monday could slow
down the process of finalizing election results in the battleground state and
empower others to echo President Trump’s unfounded allegation that he was
robbed of victory because of widespread fraud.
In an
interview Thursday, Norman Shinkle, one of the Republicans on the state
canvassing board, said that although he expected Biden to win the election, he
may suggest a delay to allow for an audit of the state’s ballots.
Republican
members of the state legislature, including state Sen. Mike Shirkey and House
Speaker Lee Chatfield, declared Friday after a White House meeting that they
had learned nothing to warrant reversing the outcome in their state.
On
Saturday morning, Detroit News reporter Melissa Nann Burke wrote on Twitter
that she had seen four of the Republicans — state Sens. Shirkey, Dan Lauwers,
Aric Nesbitt and Tom Barrett — leaving Trump’s downtown Washington hotel. Burke
also posted a photo, which she said was provided by another individual, showing
Chatfield having drinks in the hotel’s lobby.
The
lawmakers used their own personal funds for the gathering, said Gideon
D’Assandro, spokesman for Chatfield.
The
Trump hotel — a popular Republican hangout — is expensive, even during the
pandemic: On Saturday, the hotel’s website said the lowest available rate for
that night was $476.
“Senator
Shirkey supports a deliberate process free from intimidation and threats,”
Amber McCann, Shirkey’s spokeswoman, said in a statement Saturday. “The Board
of State Canvassers should feel comfortable taking the full time allowed by law
if they feel it’s necessary to perform their duties, or certify on Monday if
they’re satisfied it’s appropriate to do so.”
The GOP
leaders said they “echo” the concerns voiced by failed Republican U.S. Senate
candidate John James this week, citing a letter filed Friday by his campaign
that made claims of irregularities in Wayne County’s elections. Cox and
McDaniel called the accusations made by the James campaign “deeply concerning.”
“In
light of the already unprecedented nature of this election — conducted largely
by mail in the midst of an ongoing pandemic,” they wrote, “it would be a grievous
dereliction of this Board’s duty to the people of Michigan not to ensure that
the irregularities identified by the James Campaign are thoroughly investigated
by a full audit before certifying Wayne County’s results.”
Attempting
to offer reassurance that this was not an attempt to indefinitely block the
state’s process of selecting electors for Biden, they wrote that “neither that
adjournment nor the audit of Wayne County’s results would impermissibly delay
certification of the election results beyond the statutory deadline of December
7, 2020.”
Last
week, Benson reminded Michigan that her office had already intended to conduct
an audit of the election and has been preparing to do so for the past two
years, noting that this would be a typical post-election procedure and was not
being done in response to disproved or unfounded claims of election fraud.
“Throughout
my tenure as Michigan Secretary of State, and indeed long before, I have spoken
repeatedly on the importance of post-election audits to ensure Michiganders can
trust the outcome of our elections as an accurate reflection of the will of the
people,” she said in the statement. “Notably, audits are neither designed to
address nor performed in response to false or mythical allegations of
‘irregularities’ that have no basis in fact.”
According
to Michigan election law, the secretary of state “authorize the release of all
ballots, ballot boxes, voting machines, and equipment after 30 days following
certification of an election by the board of state canvassers” in the event
that a recount petition has been filed or a court has issued an order “restraining
interference” with these materials.
