Michigan: Detroit elections expert defends TCF operations, refutes allegations during Senate hearing | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

In a clear and methodical tone, a longtime Michigan elections expert refuted a litany of fraud and misconduct allegations focused on absentee ballots in Detroit during a legislative hearing on Tuesday. Chris Thomas served roughly 37 years as the state elections administrator, working under Republican and Democratic secretaries of state. This year, he worked as a senior adviser for Detroit, spending time at TCF Center, where the city counted absentee ballots. His testimony was clear: Thousands of absentee ballots in Detroit were not counted multiple times. Dead people did not vote. Mysterious ballots did not turn up at TCF in the middle of the night. "I'm not here to tell you it was perfect but it was a damn good election," Thomas testified. There was human error, but this is typical and was corrected in accordance with the law, Thomas said. He also said lawmakers could help improve operations ahead of the next election, specifically by giving local clerks more time to process absentee ballots ahead of Election Day. "These folks were not necessarily attuned to what they were looking at," Thomas said, summarizing allegations of misconduct made by Republicans and others at TCF. Thomas was the first elections official with Detroit to testify before the Senate Oversight Committee since the Nov. 3 election. He has provided similar information in the form of affidavits, submitted to refute lawsuits alleging misconduct filed in Detroit.

Full Article: Detroit elections expert refutes allegations during Senate hearing

National: Scores of US poll workers tested positive for Covid over election period | Kira Lerner and Indrani Basu/The Guardian

On 5 November, two days after election day, an employee in the Onondaga county, New York, board of elections office went home early. She felt exhausted, according to the election commissioner Dustin Czarny, and assumed the long shifts were to blame. A week later she was hospitalized, tested for Covid-19, and learned she had contracted the virus. By then, unbeknown to the other employees, the virus had spread through the office where staff was working long shifts to count absentee ballots before New York’s certification deadline. Roughly 200 employees and volunteers who counted absentee ballots were sent home on 13 November and instructed to get tested. In total, 12 employees tested positive. “We had almost everybody in the office last week before Friday the 13th,” Czarny said. “Of course this all happened on Friday the 13th.” Czarny and the other commissioner closed the office and stopped vote counting for the week, informing New York they would miss the 28 November certification deadline. Czarny said the crisis is exactly what he’d hoped to avoid as they administered an election in the middle of a pandemic. “This is what we were fearing and it happened,” he said. For local election officials, the 2020 election was guaranteed to be a struggle. Record numbers of voters requested absentee ballots because of the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing election administrators to adapt to an unprecedented election. Officials had to hire additional staff, find warehouses and other locations to store ballots, and acquire protective equipment to ensure that their staff stayed healthy and safe. Despite their best efforts to stop the virus’s spread, several dozen poll workers and election officials across the country have tested positive for Covid-19, even as the link to election day in most cases is unclear. According to a Votebeat analysis of local reports, there were Covid-19 cases among election workers in at least nine counties in five states before election day, and at least 24 counties in 14 states reported positive cases among election workers in the days and weeks after.

Full Article: Scores of US poll workers tested positive for Covid over election period | US news | The Guardian

Michigan: Armed pro-Trump protesters gather outside Secretary of State’s home | Reuters

Michigan’s secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said dozens of armed protesters gathered in a threatening manner outside her home on Saturday evening chanting “bogus” claims about electoral fraud. Michigan officials last month certified the state’s election results showing President-elect Joe Biden had won Michigan, one of a handful of key battleground states, in the course of his 3 November election victory. Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, contrary to evidence, that the outcome was marred by widespread fraud in multiple states. State and federal officials have repeatedly stated that there is no evidence of fraud on any significant scale, and Biden is to be sworn in on 20 January. The protesters who rallied outside Benson’s home held up placards saying “Stop the Steal” and chanted the same message, according to various clips uploaded on social media. In a Twitter statement on Sunday, Benson said the protesters were trying to spread false information about the security and accuracy of the US election system. “The demands made outside my home were unambiguous, loud and threatening.” The Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, in a separate Twitter post, accused the pro-Trump demonstrators of “mob-like behavior [that] is an affront to basic morality and decency”. “Anyone can air legitimate grievances to Secretary Benson’s office through civil and democratic means, but terrorizing children and families in their own homes is not activism.”

Full Article: Armed pro-Trump protesters gather outside Michigan elections chief's home | Michigan | The Guardian

Michigan: Trump campaign appeals election case to state Supreme Court | Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press

President Donald Trump's campaign went to the Michigan Supreme Court on Monday in connection with its earliest Michigan case challenging ballot counting in Detroit and elsewhere in the Nov. 3 election. "Unfortunately, some local election jurisdictions, including Wayne County, did not conduct the general election as required by Michigan law," lawyers for the campaign said in a court filing. "And Secretary of State (Jocelyn) Benson did not require local election jurisdictions to allow challengers to meaningfully observe the conduct of the election and the tabulation and tallying of ballots." Similar claims have been rejected by Michigan judges at both the state and federal levels and the specific claims in this case were rejected by Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens on Nov. 5 and by the Michigan Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, on Friday. The Court of Appeals chastised the campaign for dragging its feet on the appeal, said the certification of Michigan's election results by the Board of State Canvassers in the interim had made the lawsuit moot, and said that if the Trump campaign wanted to challenge the results it could have requested a recount, but did not. "Plaintiff failed to follow clear law in Michigan relative to such matters," the court said. The campaign wanted an order directing Benson to require "meaningful access" for campaign poll watchers to the counting of state ballots, plus access to videotaped surveillance of ballot drop boxes installed around the state after Oct. 1. It had asked for a pause in ballot counting while the case was heard.

Full Article: Trump campaign appeals election case to Michigan Supreme Court

Michigan: Federal judge upholds election: ‘The people have spoken’ | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

A federal judge has rejected a last-minute push by Michigan Republicans who sought an emergency order to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state, saying the effort aimed to "ignore the will of millions of voters." The suit seemed "less about achieving the relief" the GOP plaintiffs sought and "more about the impact of their allegations on people’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government," wrote Detroit U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker of Michigan's Eastern District. "The People have spoken," wrote Parker, who issued the ruling in the early morning hours of Monday, a week before the nation's presidential electors will meet. Trump lost Michigan 51%-48% or by 154,000 votes to President-elect Joe Biden, and the Board of State Canvassers certified the tally on Nov. 23. On Nov. 25, six Michigan Republicans, represented by conservative attorney Sidney Powell, filed their lawsuit asking for "emergency relief," including a court order requiring Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to sign off on certified election results that state "President Donald Trump is the winner of the election." The suit also asked the federal judge to impound "all voting machines and software in Michigan for expert inspection." The defendants in Powell's suit are Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the Board of State Canvassers.

Full Article: Federal judge upholds Michigan election: 'The people have spoken'

Michigan: Federal judge rejects GOP effort to overturn election results | Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein/Politico

A federal judge on Monday tore apart Republican efforts to overturn the election results in Michigan, calling the lawsuit itself — brought by President Donald Trump’s electors in the state — an apparent effort to damage democracy. “In fact, this lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief Plaintiffs seek — as much of that relief is beyond the power of this Court — and more about the impact of their allegations on People’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government,” said Judge Linda Parker, of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan. Parker’s 35-page opinion, released after midnight Monday morning, found the legal argument of the Trump electors defective for multiple reasons, most notably that it was moot because the state had already certified President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state, sending his electors to the Electoral College. She also found that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit, and brought it too late to be heard. But Parker was at her most forceful when she considered the GOP electors’ goal: reversing Michigan’s entire election, disenfranchising millions of voters and declaring Trump the winner. “With nothing but speculation and conjecture that votes for President Trump were destroyed, discarded or switched to votes for Vice President Biden, Plaintiffs’ equal protection claim fails,” Parker said.

Full Article: Federal judge rejects GOP effort to overturn Michigan election results - POLITICO

Michigan: Armed protesters rally outside Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s home | Samuel Dodge/MLive.com

About 20-30 protesters, some open-carrying guns, gathered outside Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s home Saturday night to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Michigan, police said. Officers responded to a public disturbance around 9:50 p.m., Dec. 5 outside of Benson’s Detroit residence, said the Michigan State Police. Some of the protesters carried weapons, police said, and the crowd dispersed once officers arrived. No protesters were arrested, police said. Detroit police were called to the scene, as well. Protesters posted two livestream videos of the rally, which showed people chanting for election audits and to “Stop the steal.” At least one individual shouted “you’re murderers” in the videos, according to a joint statement by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. The rally was a threat against not only Benson and her family, but also Michigan voters, Benson said in a statement. “The demands made outside my home were unambiguous, loud and threatening,” she said in the release. “They targeted me in my role as Michigan’s Chief Election Officer. But the threats of those gathered weren’t actually aimed at me – or any other elected officials in this state. They were aimed at the voters.” She noted in the release that she and her 4-year-old son were decorating the house for Christmas when the protesters arrived.

Full Article: Armed protesters rally outside Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s home - mlive.com

Michigan Court of Appeals rejects another Trump lawsuit | Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press

he Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday rejected an appeal from the Trump presidential campaign challenging Michigan's election results, in the latest in a series of court defeats for the president. In a 2-1 decision, the court chastised the campaign for dragging its feet on the appeal, said the certification of Michigan's election results by the Board of State Canvassers in the interim had made the lawsuit moot, and said that if the Trump campaign wanted to challenge the results it could have requested a recount, but did not. "Plaintiff failed to follow clear law in Michigan relative to such matters," the court said. Trump and his supporters have filed a series of lawsuits in battleground states around the country and in Michigan, where no judge has given credence to any of the claims. The ruling upholds an earlier decision by Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens, who said Nov. 5 there was no legal basis or evidence to grant what the campaign requested in a suit filed the day after the Nov. 3 election. The Trump campaign tried to appeal that decision Nov. 6, but the "emergency" appeal was rejected because lawyers for the campaign did not file the required paperwork. They then did not correct the filing until Nov. 30. In the meantime, the Board of State Canvassers certified Michigan's election results Nov. 23.

Full Article: Michigan Court of Appeals rejects another Trump lawsuit

Michigan: Trump attorney: ‘Our team’ examining Antrim voting equipment | Paul Egan/Detroit Free Press

President Donald Trump's legal team is examining and taking images from 22 vote tabulators in Antrim County Sunday morning after a judge issued an order later Friday, a Trump attorney said. "A judge actually granted our team access … for us to conduct a forensic audit," Trump attorney Jenna Ellis told Fox News on Sunday. Antrim County is solidly Republican but its unofficial results initially showed Democrat Joe Biden winning more votes on Nov. 3 than Trump did. The results were soon corrected and county and state officials have said the initial reporting inaccuracies were due to programming errors by the Republican clerk and not due to errors by the Dominion Voting Systems election equipment or related software. "That was an unexplained and so-called glitch," said Ellis, an attorney who has been prominent in the Trump campaign's efforts to overturn election results that show Biden won the presidency. "So our team is going to be able to go in there this morning and we'll be there for about eight hours to conduct that forensic examination and we'll have the results in about 48 hours and that will tell us a lot about these machines."

Full Article: Trump attorney: 'Our team' examining Antrim voting equipment

Michigan: State elections director knocks down Trump claims about TCF, fraudulent vote count | Todd Spangler/Detroit Free Press

A top elections official for Michigan's Secretary of State Office this week forcefully rebutted claims made by President Donald Trump and his allies that the Nov. 3 balloting was flawed, saying there is no evidence software changed votes and explaining that minor discrepancies in vote-counting at TCF Center in Detroit were far too small to change the outcome. In a sworn statement filed Wednesday in a lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, Jonathan Brater, the director of the state Bureau of Elections, said not only does the fact that Trump won more votes in Detroit in 2020 than he did in 2016 undermine Trump's claims that the election was rigged or fraudulent but that discrepancies between the number of absentee ballots counted at TCF Center and the number of names of voters shown to have voted absentee was less than 150. About 174,000 absentee ballots from Detroit were tabulated at TCF on Nov. 3-4. President-elect Joe Biden beat Trump in the city by more than 200,000 votes and won statewide by more than 154,000 votes. "(The) various insinuations that large numbers of ballots were illegally counted or altered in Detroit are easily dismissed by a cursory review of election data," Brater wrote in the affidavit, which is part of a lawsuit filed by attorney Sidney Powell asking that the results of the election awarding Michigan's 16 Electoral College votes to Biden be set aside.

Full Article: Donald Trump claims about Michigan election knocked down

Michigan hearings gave Trump campaign a venue to spread election misinformation | Malachi Barrett/MLive.com

Michigan legislative committees provided a platform this week for Trump supporters and the president’s personal lawyer to air unproven claims of election fraud and wild conspiracies that are now spreading across the internet. President Donald Trump directed millions of online viewers to a four-hour Wednesday night House Oversight Committee meeting attended by lawyer Rudy Giuliani and witnesses who shared testimony that has largely been disputed by Michigan election officials, judges and independent media reports. Giuliani claimed certified election results approved by bipartisan county boards and the Board of State Canvassers – which show Trump lost by 154,000 votes -- “is a complete phony” and should be ignored by the Legislature. “It’s a false statement made to the United States government,” Giuliani said Wednesday. “Those are prosecutable, by the way. That’s not the vote by any means in Michigan. I don’t know what the vote in Michigan is, but it’s at least 300,000 or 400,000 votes off for what the real vote in Michigan is. You heard the anger and the upset of your citizens. They seem to have more passion about it than you do.” Giuliani’s count, which he did not substantiate, goes far beyond the number of votes experts say would be affected by unbalanced poll books. A miscount of 300,000 votes would be greater than all the votes cast in Detroit, a central area of focus in Trump’s fraud allegations. Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater has previously said there’s no evidence of such inaccuracies, other than “occasional human errors” experienced every election year. Jake Rollow, a spokesperson for the Michigan Secretary of State, called Wednesday’s hearing a “sham” seeking to “erode the public’s confidence in what was a well-run election.”

Full Article: Michigan hearings gave Trump campaign a venue to spread election misinformation - mlive.com

Michigan: Trump, Giuliani continue to peddle baseless election conspiracies | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

In a longshot bid to overturn the results of the November election won by President-elect Joe Biden, President Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani continued to peddle baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud Wednesday. In a speech Trump gave at the White House and remarks Giuliani made before the House Oversight Committee in Michigan, the two leveled a number of false allegations about absentee ballots counted in Detroit. The allegations have already been discredited by election officials and in court. But that didn't stop Trump from falsely claiming that he won the election in Michigan when in fact he lost the state by more than 154,000 votes. Appearing before the oversight committee Wednesday evening, Giuliani, who is in charge of the Trump campaign's election-related litigation, repeated wild claims that election software changed votes and that votes were counted overseas. He spent most of his time questioning people who said they witnessed election fraud at the TCF Center in Detroit, where Detroit election workers processed and counted absentee ballots cast by the city's voters. Their allegations were already brought forward in a lawsuit whose account of the events that took place at the TCF Center was rejected as inaccurate and lacking credibility in court. The House committee launched a joint investigation with the Senate Oversight Committee into the November election the same day major television networks declared that Biden won the presidency.

Full Article: Trump, Giuliani continue to peddle baseless election conspiracies

Michigan hearing puts spotlight on unproven claims of election fraud | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

Michigan lawmakers spent more than six hours Tuesday probing for evidence of wrongdoing in the presidential election as unproven claims of fraud flew from Republican poll challengers who monitored vote-counting in Democratic-heavy Detroit. With supporters of President Donald Trump chanting outside the meeting room's windows, the Senate Oversight Committee provided the most visible platform yet in Michigan for Republicans who have raised concerns about the way the election was administered. The spotlight will continue Wednesday as the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appears before the state House Oversight Committee. Trump tweeted several clips of Tuesday's Michigan hearing as it continued. At one point, he posted, "Michigan voter fraud hearing going on now!" More than five hours into the meeting, Bill Schmidt of Livonia, who described himself as a lifelong Republican before this year's election, said he served as a poll challenger at TCF Center, where Detroit's absentee ballots were counted. Schmidt said he saw mistakes but not fraud. There was a lot of confusion at TCF Center, and people who were told there would be fraud occurring were predisposed to see it, he said. "Evil can be seen by evil people," Schmidt said after he testified. "Good people see goodness. What I saw is, I saw hardworking people working hard," he continued. "That’s what I saw. That’s America. That’s democracy.”

Full Article: Michigan hearing puts spotlight on unproven claims of election fraud

Michigan: Trump allies to judge: Force Governor to overturn election | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

Allies of President Donald Trump want a federal court in Michigan to force state leaders to set aside election results and award its 16 electoral votes to the president. A separate conservative group also wants the Michigan Supreme Court to invalidate the results that show President-elect Joe Biden won the state. The latest lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Michigan and before the state's highest court, rely on unfounded allegations of widespread fraud and misconduct that judges in the state and across the country have previously rejected. Neither has a high likelihood of success. There is no evidence of mass fraud or wrongdoing that affected election operations in Michigan or elsewhere. Biden earned roughly 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan. Last week, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers formally certified the results. But the federal lawsuit, filed by Trump-affiliated attorney Sidney Powell and a cadre of other lawyers, wants a judge to force Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to "decertify" those results. They want to act before Dec. 14, when the Electoral College is set to meet and Biden will receive the more than 270 votes needed to formally secure the presidency.

Full Article: Trump allies to Michigan judge: Force Whitmer to overturn election

 

Michigan: Suit asks Supreme Court to take custody of all election materials for investigation | Beth LeBlanc/The Detroit News

A conservative legal group has asked the Michigan Supreme Court to take custody of all Nov. 3 election materials to give the Michigan Legislature time to audit the results, investigate all claims of ballot irregularities and fraud, and "finish its constitutionally-mandated work to pick Michigan's electors." The lawsuit filed Thursday seeking the collection of ballots, pollbooks and ballot boxes also asks the court to stop the Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the Board of State Canvassers from giving final certification to the state's election results until a special master can be appointed to review alleged ballot irregularities and the legality of absentee ballots in Wayne County. It's not likely the relief sought is possible given that state canvassers gave final certification Monday, though a lawyer for the Thomas More Society's Amistad Project says he sent a letter to the canvassing board warning it not to certify.  The list of electors aligning with President-elect Joe Biden's 154,000-vote win in Michigan was sent by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the U.S. Secretary of State that same day. Likewise, the Michigan Legislature already is holding hearings to review complaints related to the Nov. 3 election and Benson has said she will audit results statewide and in Wayne County specifically.

Full Article: Suit asks Michigan's high court to take custody of all ballots

 

The Inside Story of Michigan’s Fake Voter Fraud Scandal | Tim Alberta/Politico

After five years spent bullying the Republican Party into submission, President Donald Trump finally met his match in Aaron Van Langevelde. Who? That’s right. In the end, it wasn’t a senator or a judge or a general who stood up to the leader of the free world. There was no dramatic, made-for-Hollywood collision of cosmic egos. Rather, the death knell of Trump’s presidency was sounded by a baby-faced lawyer, looking over his glasses on a grainy Zoom feed on a gloomy Monday afternoon, reading from a statement that reflected a courage and moral clarity that has gone AWOL from his party, pleading with the tens of thousands of people watching online to understand that some lines can never be uncrossed. “We must not attempt to exercise power we simply don’t have,” declared Van Langevelde, a member of Michigan’s board of state canvassers, the ministerial body with sole authority to make official Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. “As John Adams once said, 'We are a government of laws, not men.' This board needs to adhere to that principle here today. This board must do its part to uphold the rule of law and comply with our legal duty to certify this election.” Van Langevelde is a Republican. He works for Republicans in the Statehouse. He gives legal guidance to advance Republican causes and win Republican campaigns. As a Republican, his mandate for Monday’s hearing—handed down from the state party chair, the national party chair and the president himself—was straightforward. They wanted Michigan’s board of canvassers to delay certification of Biden’s victory. Never mind that Trump lost by more than 154,000 votes, or that results were already certified in all 83 counties.

Full Article: The Inside Story of Michigan’s Fake Voter Fraud Scandal - POLITICO

Michigan Attorney General Investigating Threats Made Against Wayne County Election Officials | Brakkton Booker/NPR

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel confirmed Tuesday that her office is "actively investigating" threats against members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. The announcement comes a day after state election officials voted to certify the election results, formally granting Michigan's 16 electoral votes to President-elect Biden. President Trump has for weeks sought to overturn Biden's victory there and in the election overall, without gaining traction. "We will investigate any credible complaints of threats to government officials, elected or appointed, and will prosecute criminal conduct to the fullest extent of the law," Nessel said in a statement. "Serving the people – regardless of party – is an honorable but sometimes difficult and thankless task. And while many of us have been subjected to hateful and often obscene insults, threats of violence and harm will not be tolerated," she added. Her office's Criminal Investigations Division initiated its probe after the county's Board of Canvassers meeting earlier this month. Nessel is asking that adding that anyone with a specific complaint about election fraud, threats against public officials or misinformation contact her office.

Full Article: Michigan AG Investigating Threats Made Against Wayne County Election Officials : Biden Transition Updates : NPR

Michigan: With the world watching, a Republican state canvasser helps make Biden’s win official | Lauren Gibbons/MLive

For a few hours Monday, tens of thousands of people were glued to their phones and computer screens watching an appointed board in Michigan make the state’s Nov. 3 election results official. Election certification by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers is typically viewed as a procedural step, a final check on results canvassed and certified by election officials in each of the state’s 83 counties. But in an election cycle where the sitting president has refused to concede the election and continues to push debunked claims of widespread voter fraud, every aspect of the post-election process has been unconventional. After hours of public comment, the board voted 3-0-1 to certify results that showed President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in Michigan, despite a concerted effort by the Michigan Republican Party, the John James campaign and other Trump supporters to delay certification. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, members of the board were in the same room, but public viewing was virtual. At one point, more than 35,000 people were watching on the Secretary of State’s Youtube page, and more than 500 people initially submitted requests to address the board. That’s a much larger audience than a state canvassers meeting typically gets. Although some issues under the board’s purview, such as considering whether a citizen-led policy initiative or the recall of a public official makes the ballot, get more attention, even the most crowded canvassers hearings prior to Monday’s meeting have attracted less than a few hundred people.

Full Article: With the world watching, a Republican state canvasser helps make Biden’s win in Michigan official - mlive.com

Michigan: Detroit had more vote errors in 2016 when Trump won the state by a narrow margin. He didn’t object then. | Kayla Ruble/The Washington Post

Republican Party leaders who urged Michigan's state canvassing board to hold off certifying the Nov. 3 election results before it met Monday cited what they described as "significant problems and irregularities" in Wayne County, home of Detroit. The GOP officials pointed to the number of “unbalanced” precincts, where there were small discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters logged by election workers in the poll books. Party officials unsuccessfully called on the board to conduct an audit before it certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state with a 3-to-1 vote. “To simply gloss over those irregularities now without a thorough audit would only foster feelings of distrust among Michigan’s electorate,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and state GOP Chair Laura Cox wrote in a letter Saturday. But state and county election data shows that four years ago — when Donald Trump carried the state by a much narrower margin — twice as many Detroit precincts were out of balance. At the time, the problems were widely condemned by Democratic leaders, including Garlin Gilchrist, now the state’s lieutenant governor, who called the city’s handling of the election “a complete catastrophe.”

Full Article: Detroit had more vote errors in 2016 when Trump won Michigan by a narrow margin. He didn’t object then. - The Washington Post

Michigan Supreme Court rejects appeal, but 2 justices urge looking into election fraud claims | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

In what is likely a final blow to the effort to delay the certification of election results in Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal in a lawsuit filed against Detroit and Wayne County election officials. With all but Justice David Viviano agreeing, the court denied the request to stop the certification of Wayne County's election results, writing in its order  "we are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court.” The Wayne County Board of Canvassers certified the county's results Nov. 17. But in a concurring statement to the court's order, Justice Brian Zahra, joined by Justice Stephen Markman, urged the Wayne County Circuit Court to move quickly and "meaningfully assess" the plaintiffs' allegations of electoral fraud. "I am cognizant that many Americans believe that plaintiffs’ claims of electoral fraud and misconduct are frivolous and obstructive, but I am equally cognizant that many Americans are of the view that the 2020 election was not fully free and fair," Zahra wrote. "Federal law imposes tight time restrictions on Michigan’s certification of our electors. Plaintiffs should not have to file appeals following our standard processes and procedures to obtain a final answer from this Court on such weighty issues." The concurring statement called on the Wayne County Circuit Court to hold an evidentiary hearing to assess the credibility of the plaintiffs' allegations of fraud based mostly on affidavits filed by Republican challengers present at TCF Center.

Full Article: 2 Mich. Supreme Court justices urge looking into election fraud claims

Michigan: What We Know About a Suddenly Important State Elections Board | Kathleen Gray/The New York Times

The work of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers is not glamorous and rarely draws much attention. Its members handle matters like reviewing petition signatures and helping local clerks find voting machines. But on Monday, the national spotlight will fall on one of the board’s normally mundane tasks: reviewing results from the presidential election that have been certified by Michigan’s 83 counties and giving a stamp of approval. The winner is clear. Joseph R. Biden Jr. beat President Trump in the state by over 150,000 votes, according to the Michigan Bureau of Elections. But Mr. Trump and his Republican allies are trying to upend that reality by urging the board to refuse to certify the election results. They have made baseless claims about discrepancies in the vote tallies, especially in Wayne County, which includes Detroit and is predominantly Black, and have argued that an investigation should be carried out before the state’s 16 electoral votes are awarded to Mr. Biden. Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said on Sunday that state law dictated that no audit or investigation could be done until the election was certified, because state elections officials cannot legally gain access to poll books or ballot boxes before then. The Board of State Canvassers, which will meet at 1 p.m. Eastern on Monday, includes two Republicans and two Democrats. While election law experts say the certification vote is a strictly ministerial duty that the board members are obligated to fulfill, political operatives in Michigan are preparing for a chain of events in which the two Republicans on the board follow the Trump campaign’s wishes. A 2-to-2 deadlock, which would prolong Republicans’ unprecedented attempts to overturn this year’s presidential race, would most likely prompt Democrats to ask the state Court of Appeals to order the board to do its constitutional duty and certify the election results.

Full Article: What We Know About a Suddenly Important Michigan Elections Board - The New York Times

Michigan House speaker floats possibility of ‘constitutional crisis’ | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield referenced the possibility of a "constitutional crisis" during an interview on Fox News Sunday morning, two days after he huddled with President Donald Trump at the White House. The Board of State Canvassers meets Monday to consider certifying Michigan's statewide election results, including President-elect Joe Biden's 154,000-vote victory. But top Republican Party leaders have asked the board to delay certification in a bid to investigate "anomalies and irregularities" they claim occurred on Nov. 3. The board features two Republicans and two Democrats. Many legal experts believe the panel has a duty, under Michigan law, to certify the results Monday. "If there were to be a 2-2 split on the State Board of Canvassers, it would then go to the Michigan Supreme Court to determine what their response would be, what their order would be," Chatfield, R-Levering said on "Fox & Friends" Sunday. "If they didn't have an order that it be certified, well now we have a constitutional crisis in the state of Michigan. It's never occurred before." Chatfield made the comment in response to a question about what would happen if the board divided along party lines. The top lawmaker in the GOP-controlled House said the Legislature decided "long ago" to have the certification process run through the state board.

Full Article: Michigan House speaker floats possibility of 'constitutional crisis'

Michigan: What the affidavits to stop Detroit ballot count claimed, and how they were rebutted | Mark Hicks/The Detroit News

When Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, focused Thursday on the recent lawsuit by Detroit poll challengers who sought to stop the canvassing of Wayne County election results, he pointed to the affidavits made public in the case. Those eight filings in the Costantino v. Detroit lawsuit included claims that targeted alleged restrictions on poll challengers, late-arriving absentee ballots and clerk's office workers who encouraged early voters to cast their ballots for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and Democrats. Giuliani's claims Thursday joined a series of attempts by President Trump's supporters to discount Biden's win in Michigan and undermine the election of Joseph Biden Jr. as president. A Wayne County judge last week denied the request, finding many of the claims without merit following rebuttals from city officials. The city of Detroit has denied the allegations in the case and said they are proof the plaintiffs "do not understand absent voter ballot processing and tabulating." "It is clear also that they did not operate through the leadership of their challenger party, because the issues they bring forward were by and large discussed and resolved with the leadership of their challenger party," according to an affidavit by Chris Thomas, a retired 36-year elections director for Michigan under both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state.

Full Article: What the affidavits to stop Detroit ballot count claimed, and how they were rebutted

G.O.P. faces outcry in Michigan after refusing to certify vote: ‘You could see the racism.’ | Kathleen Gray, Jim Rutenberg, Nick Corasaniti and Glenn Thrush/The New York Times

Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit on Wednesday accused President Trump’s allies in Michigan’s most populous county of racism after they initially refused to certify the election results over slight discrepancies in majority-Black precincts — while ignoring similar problems in heavily white areas. The complaint echoed accusations against Mr. Trump and his allies around the country, charging Republicans with preying on ugly racist stereotypes to cast doubt on Black voters in their last-ditch effort to overturn a legitimate election that Mr. Trump lost decisively. Republican election board members in Wayne County, which contains Detroit and its inner suburbs, refused to certify the county’s election results in a nakedly partisan effort to hold up President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory over Mr. Trump. Hours later, they reversed themselves after an outcry from state officials and Detroit residents who accused them of trying to steal their votes. “You could see the racism in the behavior last night,” Mr. Duggan said at a news conference on Wednesday. “American democracy cracked last night, but it didn’t break. But we are seeing a real threat to everything we believe in.” The Rev. Wendell Anthony, the head of Detroit’s N.A.A.C.P. chapter, said the Trump campaign’s attempts to discredit the election in cities with large Black populations like Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta fit a racist pattern of stoking divisions and undermining democratic institutions.

Full Article: G.O.P. faces outcry in Michigan after refusing to certify vote: ‘You could see the racism.’ - The New York Times

Michigan: GOP members of Wayne County canvassing board ask to ‘rescind’ their votes certifying the election | Tom Hamburger, Kayla Ruble and Tim Elfrink/The Washington Post

After three hours of tense deadlock on Tuesday, the two Republicans on an election board in Michigan’s most populous county reversed course and voted to certify the results of the presidential election, a key step toward finalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Now, they both want to take back their votes. In affidavits signed on Wednesday evening, the two GOP members of the four-member Wayne County Board of Canvassers allege that they were improperly pressured into certifying the election and accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to audit votes in Detroit. “I rescind my prior vote,” Monica Palmer, the board’s chairwoman, wrote in an affidavit reviewed by The Washington Post. “I fully believe the Wayne County vote should not be certified.” William Hartmann, the other Republican on the board, has signed a similar affidavit, according a person familiar with the document. Hartmann did not respond to a message from The Post. Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat and the board’s vice chairman, told The Post that it’s too late for the pair to reverse course, as the certified results have already been sent to the secretary of state in accordance with state rules. He lashed out at the Republicans over their requests.

Full Article: Wayne County, Michigan, GOP members of canvassing board ask to 'rescind' their votes certifying the election - The Washington Post

When Michigan Republicans Refused to Certify Votes, It Wasn’t Normal | Maggie Astor/The New York Times

For a few hours on Tuesday, it looked as though two Republican officials in Wayne County, Mich., might reject the will of hundreds of thousands of voters. President Trump’s campaign cheered them on. But hundreds of Michiganders logged on to a Zoom call to express their fury. And around 9 p.m., the Republicans reversed themselves, certifying the count. Voters in Michigan and beyond were left wondering: What just happened? Could the results of a free election really be blocked that easily, in such a routine part of the electoral process? In this case, the answer was no, but perhaps only because so many people said so.

Full Article: When Michigan Republicans Refused to Certify Votes, It Wasn’t Normal - The New York Times

Michigan: In reversal, GOP officials in Wayne County certify ballot count after striking a compromise with Democrats | Kayla Ruble, Elise Viebeck, Josh Dawsey and Jon Swaine/The Washington Post

Republican appointees on a key board in Michigan’s most populous county Tuesday night reversed their initial refusal to certify the vote tallies in the Detroit area, striking a last-minute compromise with Democrats that defused a political fight over the process to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state. The unexpected twist came after the four-member Wayne County Board of Canvassers had deadlocked on the day of the deadline for Michigan counties to certify the vote — a move President Trump celebrated on Twitter as “a beautiful thing.” The Trump campaign has alleged irregularities in the vote count in the county seat of Detroit, accusations city officials have vigorously denied. Democrats accused GOP officials of seeking to disenfranchise voters in the majority-Black city of Detroit. State Democrats say Trump has no hope of overturning Biden’s 148,000-vote lead. Trump supporters had urged Michigan’s majority-Republican state legislature to try to appoint its own electors if the state canvassing board, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, failed to certify the vote before the electoral college meets in December.

Full Article: In reversal, GOP officials in key Michigan county certify ballot count after striking a compromise with Democrats - The Washington Post

Michigan Court of Appeals rejects appeal in lawsuit seeking to delay Wayne County election certification | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

On Monday, the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected the request to reverse a Wayne County Circuit Court judge's Friday ruling allowing the Wayne County Board of Canvassers to complete the audit of the November election and certify the county's election results by the Nov. 17 deadline as required under state law. The lawsuit, filed by David Kallman on behalf of two Wayne County voters, asked the court to require an independent audit of the votes cast by Wayne County voters, separate from the one already being undertaken by the county's Board of Canvassers. The lawsuit also asked the court to void the Nov. 3 election and order a new one. President-elect Joe Biden won the county by a margin of nearly 323,000 votes. The lawsuit rested on allegations that local election officials oversaw a fraudulent election in Detroit, focusing their claims on events that took place at the TCF Center where Detroit's election workers counted absentee ballots cast by the city's voters. In his Friday opinion, Wayne County Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Kenny wrote that the account of Detroit's election process presented in the lawsuit was "incorrect and not credible" and denied the request to order an audit of the election.

Full Article: Court of Appeals won't delay Wayne County election certification

Michigan: When to Worry, When to Not, and the Takeaway from Antrim County | Cindy Cohn/Electronic Frontier Foundation

Everyone wants an election that is secure and reliable. With technology in the mix, making sure that the technology supports this is critical. EFF has long-warned against blindly adopting technologies that can be easily manipulated or fail without having systems in place to test, secure, and catch problems, including through risk limiting audits. At the same time, not every problem is worth pulling the fire alarm about—we have to look at the bigger story and context.  And we have to stand down when our worst fears turn out to be unfounded. A story out of Michigan last week in Antrim County provides a good opportunity to apply this. What seems to have happened is that a needed software update was not applied to a system that helps collect and report digital vote information—the county has paper ballots that are scanned—from the county. As a result, it appeared that 6,000 votes shifted from Republicans to Democrats in the unofficial reports. That is very worrisome. However, when the update was applied, the votes shifted back because the actual tabulation figures were correct. Of course there were paper ballots too, that would have been cross-checked under Michigan’s processes had this not been caught so early.  Our longtime election security friend and partner Professor Alex Halderman of the University of Michigan has a more technical rundown on his Twitter feed. This story should be one that takes what could have been a big worry and instead gives us cause for relief. Instead of just direct-recording electronic voting machines (DREs) and election systems that don’t have fail-safes for errors, Michigan had good error-checking, and the error was caught quickly. Even if it hadn’t been, it is very likely that it would have been caught later, as the results shifted from unofficial to official. And it wasn’t even a computer or software error; it was a human one. But, of course, systems should take steps to protect against errors by humans running them too.

Full Article: Election Security: When to Worry, When to Not, and the Takeaway from Antrim County, Michigan | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Michigan: State senators want ‘audit’ of election before canvassing. That’s what canvassing is, Secretary of State says. | Carol Thompson/Lansing State Journal

Two state senators are asking the Secretary of State to "audit" the November election before certifying results, citing a handful of alleged improprieties, most of which have been debunked in the press. Sens. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, and Lana Theis, R-Brighton, made the request in a Friday letter to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. The Secretary of State's office is reviewing their request while the State Board of Canvassers meets to certify the election. The canvassing process itself is an audit, spokesperson Tracy Wimmer said. The state canvassers must convene by Nov. 23. In their letter, Barrett and Theis repeated claims raised by Michigan Republicans since the polls closed on Nov. 3. They pointed to an instance in Antrim County, where a clerk's failure to update software caused results to temporarily show Democrat Joe Biden in the lead. A University of Michigan voting security expert told the Detroit Free Press the mistake, which was corrected, was caused by an "unusual sequence of events very unlikely to affect any other jurisdictions," although many other jurisidictions use the same software.

Full Article: 2 state senators ask Michigan Secretary of State for election audit