Nov. 22 (UPI) — Michigan is set to certify the results of the 2020 election on Monday, amid ongoing challenges by President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Michigan Secretary of State spokeswoman Tracy Wimmer told CNN that the board of state canvassers is expected to certify the election results at their scheduled meeting Monday, despite a call from Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to investigate alleged fraud.
“We have no reason to doubt the canvassers will carry out their duty to certify. Every one of Michigan’s 83 counties have done so, Republican and Democrat clerks have confirmed there is no evidence of widespread irregularities and the board has previously certified elections with more clerical mistakes and much narrower margins of victory,” Wimmer said.
President-elect Joe Biden won the state by about 150,000 votes, Cox and McDaniel sent a letter to the canvassing board suggesting it adjourn for 14 days for a “full audit and investigation” before certifying the state’s election results.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, however, clarified on Saturday that such an audit could not take place until after the election is certified.
A group of Black voters in Detroit filed a lawsuit on Friday, asking a federal judge to block Trump and his campaign from “continuing to exert pressure” on officials in Michigan and other states after he met with State Senate Republican leader Mike Shirkey and state House Speaker Lee Chatfield at the White House.
“Central to this strategy is disenfranchising voters in predominately Black cities,” the suit states. “Repeating false claims of voter fraud, which have been thoroughly debunked, Defendants are pressuring state and local officials in Michigan not to count votes from Wayne County, Michigan (where Detroit is the county seat), and thereby disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.”
Some counties in Pennsylvania, where Biden leads by about 80,000 votes, are also set to certify their election results Monday after U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Brann dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit that attempted to invalidate millions of Pennsylvania mail-in votes.
Trump on Saturday however vowed to appeal the decision in a post on Twitter.
Nevada, which Biden won by more than 30,000 votes, is expected to certify its results on Tuesday after District Court Judge Gloria Sturman denied a challenge by conservative activist Sharron Angle of the Election Integrity Project to request a preliminary injunction to the Nevada Supreme Court’s certification.
Wisconsin faces a Dec. 1 deadline to certify its election results but the state is still conducting a partial recount after the Trump campaign last week paid $3 million to file a petition for a recount in Dane and Milwaukee counties, both of which voted overwhelmingly for Biden.
Georgia certified its election results on Friday following a hand recount that showed Trump lost the election to Biden by 12,284 votes, but the president requested a machine recount after he tweeted Wednesday that the hand recount “is a joke.”
