Two Republicans on the board of Canvassers in Wayne County, Michigan, switched their votes from refusing to certify the election to agreeing to certify the election.
The vote had been in a deadlock, 2-2. There were concerns because Wayne County had numerous issues with the vote count. The county has a history of having discrepancies in vote counting.
Right after the vote against certifying the election votes, threats and pressure came at the two Republicans. They caved and switched their votes.
Fox News anchor Shannon Bream tweeted out a quote from a lawyer on the ground:
BREAKING TWIST: Attorney on the ground in MI tells me Wayne County Board of Canvassers has now unanimously agreed to CERTIFY the results and called on SoS to conduct an audit … He says – "Apparently a lot of threats and pressure and they caved in." More on @FoxNewsNight
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) November 18, 2020
The Republicans were called racists:
Well what have we here? IT'S THE MASTER RACE!#MonicaPalmerIsRacist #WilliamHartmannIsRacist pic.twitter.com/3t9lbYK0Z9
— AmericanTragedy12! (@RoloTom26195079) November 18, 2020
The Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, claimed that the two Republican Canvassers were undermining the voters’ will.
The two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers refusing to approve the election results in Wayne County is a blatant attempt to undermine the will of the voters. pic.twitter.com/2m8eN6Cfpy
— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) November 18, 2020
OUR PREVIOUS REPORT:
The two Republicans, Monica Palmer, the board chairperson, and William Hartmann (photo below), both voted against the certification of the November 3rd election in a 2-2 split along Party lines.
Board Vice-Chair Jonathan Kinloch and Allen Wilson, both Democrats, voted in favor of certification.
According to Michigan election guidelines, the county must provide all election documentation to the Michigan Secretary of State office and state Board of Canvassers, who will then have 10 days to certify the result.
Canvassers found that several precincts were out of balance, meaning the number of signatures of people who signed in to the polling location to vote was not the same as the number of people who actually voted.
According to local Patch, unbalanced precincts have historically been a problem in Detroit, where 72 percent of poll books in the August primary were out of balance. In the 2016 presidential election — when Donald Trump won the state and the presidency — a state audit in Detroit found a series of mismatched Detroit vote totals in the presidential election, attributing them to human error.
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits to block the certification of election results in Michigan. Still, the state appeals court has repeatedly denied the campaign’s bids to stop Detroit-area votes’ certification.
On Friday, a Michigan judge refused to stop the certification of Detroit-area election results, rejecting claims by Trump’s campaign that the city had committed fraud and tainted the count with its handling of absentee ballots.
Of course, Friday’s ruling marked the third time a biased Michigan judge declined to intervene in a statewide count.
Michigan Republicans have continued to fight for an independent audit of the state’s election.
Michigan Senate President Pro Tempore Aric Nesbitt spoke out about the effort to have an audit:
“We have seen several allegations that range from outright fraud, if true, to terrible mistakes that need to be corrected. Citizens deserve to have faith in the integrity of the election process and its outcome. As elected public servants, it is our responsibility to assure the process’s integrity through transparency and the investigation of allegations of wrongdoing. Every legal vote must count.”
The Michigan Secretary of State released a statement: