Michigan votes to certify state's election results in huge blow to Donald Trump

Watch: Michigan certifies Biden election win

Michigan's Board of State Canvassers officially certified Democrat Joe Biden's election victory in the state over Donald Trump on Monday, closing off another avenue for the outgoing president to contest his national defeat.

The board voted three in favour to one abstention to certify Biden as the winner after he topped Mr Trump by nearly 156,000 votes out of the 5.5 million cast.

The president has claimed since the November 3 election, without evidence, that he was defeated due to fraudulent voting and counting practices in the state.

Michigan, with its 13 electoral votes, was a must-win battleground state for Mr Trump.

The Board of State Canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results on a 3-0 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.

One of the Republican board members, Aaron Van Langevelde, joined the two Democratic board members Monday in voting to certify the vote.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about this board’s role and the power that we have and the authority that we have,” Van Langevelde said during the meeting.

“The law regarding certification gives us a clear duty,” he added later. “There’s nothing in the law that gives me the authority to request an audit as part of the certification process.”

“Our duty is very simple, and it is a duty,” he said.

The president has faced a slew of legal defeats around the country, most recently on Saturday in Pennsylvania, when a federal judge rejected the Trump campaign’s efforts to stop the certification of the election in that state

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