Michigan Board Of Canvassers Certifies 2020 Election Results

MICHIGAN — The Michigan Board of Canvassers on Monday voted 3-0 to certify the state’s Nov. 3 election results.

By certifying the results, the state board of canvassers, a four-person panel comprised of two Republican and two Democratic members, confirmed that the state's 16 electoral votes go to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who won Michigan by 154,000 votes over President Donald Trump.

More than 21,000 people tuned in to the meeting on YouTube, which was held remotely from a room inside the Michigan Capitol building with socially distanced board members due to COVID-19 health guidelines. Over 500 people signed up for public comment, board members said.

No one from the public attended the meeting in person.

Board chair Jeannette Bradshaw, a Democratic, Republican Vice-Chair Aaron Van Langevelde and Democrat Julie Matuzak voted in favor of certification. Norman Shinkle, a Republican, abstained from the vote.

Shinkle said ahead of the vote he was going to vote against certifying the results until an investigation is completed. Had the board not certified Monday, the task of doing so would have moved to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Prior to his vote, Shinkle said said he would ask for a full legislative review of the elections process. Other board members agreed some processes would benefit from a review.

The meeting lasted roughly 4 hours, including input from the public through Zoom.

Jenna Ellis, an attorney working with the Trump campaign, said the board's vote was strictly procedural.

"We are going to continue combatting election fraud around the country as we fight to count all the legal votes," she said in a statement. "Americans must be assured that the final results are fair and legitimate."

A slew of Democratic officials in Michigan expressed their approval of the vote on social media.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the board's vote "confirms the truth: the election was fair secure, and the results accurately reflect the will of the voters."

"Now we turn to the important work of implementing a statewide risk limiting audit & local procedural audits to affirm the integrity of the vote & identify areas for improvement," she added. "We will continue working w lawmakers to strengthen our elections even more in the months ahead."

Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer thanked clerks around the state as well as Benson for their work.

“The people of Michigan have spoken," she said. "President-elect Biden won the State of Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, and he will be our next president on January 20th."

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she commended the board members for certifying the results.

"A record number of citizens turned out to vote in an election that was fair, secure and transparent," she said. "It is now the responsibility of every official and leader in this country to ensure that the will of the voters is heard. The Board’s actions today did exactly that in Michigan and I appreciate and respect their courage under these historic circumstances.”

Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey thanked board members for their vote and said the state senate will honor it.

Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater began the meeting by reading a statement to the board recommending that they certify the results. He also commended election workers around the state for their work on Election Day, calling much of the criticism regarding Election Day processes as "unfair."

Brater said there were no widespread election issues discovered during the county certifications of Michigan's 83 counties. Some irregularities that were reported in Wayne County were not uncommon and the November election was an improvement over past elections in Detroit, Brater said.

Christopher Thomas, Michigan’s former state director of elections, answered questions from board members, saying Detroit — the state's largest city— has seen significant improvement in elections procedures since 2016.

Thomas, who helped as a special advisor to Detroit in November, said the city is by far the state's largest elections operation, and that staff has reported improvements for accuracy. Thomas said there is work still to be done, but that efforts are being made to continue improving.

Shinkle asked Thomas under what circumstances the board could adjourn and delay certifying the results, saying anyone who says the election went smoothly is being inaccurate.

Thomas responded by saying that, if the board has all of the material necessary, he didn’t think they could adjourn.

“What would you be waiting for?” he retorted. “There’s no reason to sit on it for 40 days. … What would you do for 40 days? You don’t have the authority to do an audit, so what would you do?”

A slew of elections clerks from around the state spoke during the meeting, urging the board to certify the results of the election.

Livonia city clerk Susan Nash said she would be in favor of an audit, but in order for that to take place the board of canvassers would need to certify the results.

Michelle Anzaldi, the elections clerk in Pittsfield Township, also asked the board to certify the results so "we can begin the audit process."

Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum said it is the job of the board of canvassers to certify the results, which have previously been certified at the county level. Byrum called Shinkle's decision to vote against certification "shocking and disgusting."

"It is the job of the 83 county canvassers, not the state, to certify the votes in their jurisdiction," Byrum said.

Michigan GOP Chair Laura Cox implored the board to delay their vote in order to execute a full audit of election results prior to certification. Cox also said that Republican challengers were disrespected at the TCF Center, where absentee ballots were counted.
"I will continue to stand up for republicans and demand that they be respected," she said.

In interviews with election workers at the TCF Center following the election, workers told Patch that Republican challengers were "aggressive" and uninformed of rules surrounding the process.

What has seemingly been an overlooked and mundane portion of past elections, all eyes were aimed at the Michigan State Board of Canvassers for this go-around following a six-hour canvasser meeting in Wayne County that featured board members first deadlocking on whether to certify results before ultimately approving certification.

Read More: Wayne County Election Results Certified After Initial Deadlock

The concern voiced by Republican canvassers in Wayne County surrounded Detroit, where about 70 percent of absentee vote counting boards are out of balance without explanation, according to The Detroit News.

Balanced precincts mean the number of ballots counted matches the number of ballots recorded in the poll book as well as the number of ballots tabulated by a counting machine.

Another concern was that there weren't Republican poll workers present at all 134 absentee counting boards in Wayne County, but Dan Baxter, a former director of elections for Detroit, said they could not get enough GOP recruits for those positions.

Michigan's elections agency had said that, even if verified, the claimed irregularities in places such as Wayne County would not significantly affect the outcome. The Michigan Democratic Party said the total number of Detroit votes implicated by imbalanced precincts is at most 450, or "0.029% of the margin" separating Biden from Trump.

Republican members of the board were criticized after a suggestion that all of Wayne County should be certified aside from the city of Detroit. During the public comment period, several callers had harsh words for the board's decision.

The move was questioned as being racially motivated by one board member, considering the city's majority Black population. But discrepancies are common, and Detroit was far from the only area to have out of balance numbers, Democratic board members pointed out.

Information and reporting from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Detroit Patch