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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivers remarks on health care at the Beech Woods Recreation Center on October 16, 2020 in Southfield, Michigan.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
Michigan’s top electoral board certified Joe Biden’s victory in that state’s presidential vote on Monday, dealing another blow to President Donald Trump in his efforts to block the Democrat’s national victory.
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers approved the popular election results with a 3-0 vote.
Republican board member Aaron Van Langevelde voted to certify Biden’s victory, along with the two Democrats on the board, while other GOP member Norm Shinkle abstained.
The vote came days after Trump held an unprecedented White House meeting with Republican lawmakers in Michigan in what was believed to be an effort to get the state legislature to overturn the vote popular vote and nominate a list of Trump voters to the Electoral College.
After the meeting, lawmakers said they saw no evidence of fraud that would invalidate the popular vote. They also said they would follow state law, which requires voters in the state constituency to go to the winner of popular ballots.
Ben Halle, spokesman for Biden’s Michigan campaign, said in a statement Monday: “We appreciate the State Council’s recognition of the clear facts: President-elect Joe Biden has won the state of Michigan by over 150,000 votes – 14 times the margin of Donald Trump in 2016. “
“We thank the State of Michigan for its support and look forward to receiving its 16 electoral votes,” he said.
Jenna Ellis, senior legal counsel for the Trump campaign, said in a statement: “Certification by state officials is just a procedural step. We will continue to fight electoral fraud across the country as we are fighting to count all the legal votes. “
“Americans need to be assured that the end results are fair and legitimate,” Ellis said.
Trump’s campaign claimed, without evidence, that he was swindled out of a victory in Michigan and elsewhere as a result of electoral fraud. But those claims have repeatedly failed to gain traction in courts where the campaign and Trump allies have taken legal action.
The campaign dropped a federal lawsuit contesting ballots in the Detroit area last week, after falsely claiming that the Wayne County Board of Elections voted against certification of the results there. In fact, the board had certified Biden’s victory in that county, but two Republican board members later said they wanted to reverse their approval, a step which the Michigan secretary of state said was not. legally possible.
Protesters in a trailer call on the Council of State Solicitors to certify election results in Lansing, Michigan, Nov. 23, 2020.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
On Saturday, a Pennsylvania federal judge dismissed, with a scathing written decision, a lawsuit brought by Trump’s campaign that sought to prevent that state’s counties from certifying their election results by today. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar is expected to approve county certifications after they are filed. Trump’s campaign is appealing the decision.
Michigan and Pennsylvania are among the states Biden won that Trump won in the 2016 election.
Georgia is another such state.
Georgia certified its votes last week showing a victory for Biden after a manual recount of the ballots. The state will now conduct an automatic recount at the request of the Trump campaign.
Biden is currently expected to win 306 electoral college votes, 36 votes more than he needs to clinch the presidency.
Legal experts give Trump little or no hope of invalidating enough popular ballots to have Biden in enough states to withdraw enough votes from the Electoral College to avoid defeat.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a written statement Monday: “I congratulate the three members of the State Council of Solicitors who voted to follow the law and certify the results of the 2020 election today.”
“The people of Michigan have spoken. President-elect Biden has won the state of Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, and he will be our next president on January 20,” said Whitmer.
“I also want to thank Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and local Michigan clerks who ensured that this year’s election was free, fair and secure, as well as voters who came together in record numbers to make hear their voices. Now is the time to put this election behind us and unite as a state to defeat our common enemy: COVID-19. “
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