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President Donald Trump’s campaign appears to be asking Michigan lawmakers to nominate 16 members of the electoral college who will vote for Trump despite his loss of more than 154,000 votes.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, and a spokesperson for Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, said lawmakers in both houses had received calls from the Trump campaign. A Republican state official also received an email from a Trump campaign official who asked lawmakers to overturn the election results and nominate voters for Trump, citing allegations of unproven electoral fraud. .
Related: Republicans reiterate election fraud allegations in 7am hearing, but ‘we don’t learn anything new’, Democrats say
The email claims Trump ordered his staff to contact Michigan lawmakers because the election “was compromised.” A recording of a phone call obtained by MIRS News shows that the campaign asked lawmakers if the president “can count on you” to draft a resolution to nominate Trump’s voters.
Shirkey, in a statement posted on Twitter, said lawmakers would go through the normal voter nomination process. Republican House and Senate leaders have previously said the legislature will not award Michigan’s 16 voters to Trump.
Voters will gather on Capitol Hill on December 14 to vote for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates who won Michigan’s popular vote. State law requires that every voter cast their vote for the candidates of the political party that nominated them.
Related: Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani comes to Michigan to testify on 2020 election
A person who identified himself as a representative of the Trump campaign claimed that Michigan lawmakers could challenge the popular vote, alluding to a provision in the US Constitution allowing state legislatures to appoint voters in any way they choose .
Michigan law states that electoral votes automatically go to the candidate who received the most votes in the November election. Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes, according to results certified by the Board of State Canvassers.
“Claims that Michigan lawmakers have different authority than what is expressly provided for in state law are inaccurate,” Shirkey wrote Tuesday evening. “Any change would require the intervention of our courts.”
Trump campaign officials have claimed that the “conservative” legislatures of Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia are considering similar action. A campaign email to Michigan lawmakers said “this fraudulent election is far from over,” although votes have already been certified in each of those states.
Trump would need at least three of those four states to overrule the election result in order to gain enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Biden is set to win 306 Electoral College votes when voters officially register their vote on Dec. 14, while Trump has 232.
US Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press this week that Justice Department investigators failed to find fraud “on a scale that could have had a different outcome in the election.”
The president has not called for a recount in Michigan, but his legal challenges in the state continue. The campaign appealed a claims court ruling that dismissed an attempt to prevent the counting of votes in Wayne County.
Angela McCallum identified herself as a representative of the Trump campaign in the call recorded by MIRS News. McCallum declined to answer questions when contacted by MLive on Tuesday.
This is not the first time the Trump campaign has contacted Michigan officials. Trump invited Shirkey and Chatfield to the White House before Michigan’s election results were certified, and the president personally called a Republican chairperson for the Wayne County Solicitors Council last month.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani is due to make a presentation to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday evening. The Senate oversight committee heard testimony from dozens of election candidates during a seven-hour hearing on Tuesday.
The Trump campaign, Republican Party leaders, and GOP activists pressured the Legislature to investigate various unproven allegations of irregularities and fraud. Most of the complaints, many of which have been dismissed in legal proceedings, relate to issues that would have impacted the process of counting the votes of those absent from Detroit at the TCF Center.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has pledged to conduct a post-election audit of operations in Wayne County as part of a previously scheduled review of multiple jurisdictions. The Michigan Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of poll challengers seeking to prevent the certification of Wayne County’s results, rushing a lawsuit withheld by the Trump campaign as evidence of fraud.
Election officials attributed the minor discrepancies found in the results for Wayne County and elsewhere to human error that is common every election year. Chris Thomas, a former state returning officer who advised the city of Detroit during the election, said there was no fraud associated with the processing of mail ballots in Detroit.
Trump supporters have staged a series of protests on the Michigan Capitol, refusing to accept Biden as president-elect. Some supporters have called on the legislature to overturn the result and choose voters who will vote for Trump.
Legislative committees do not have the power to change the outcome of the election or to mandate an audit of the results. Senate Oversight Committee Chairman Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, said the ongoing on Capitol Hill election hearings will help inform future legislative changes to election law.
McBroom said he had not heard any testimony revealing new issues, but that any evidence of fraud would be forwarded to the Attorney General. McBroom laughed when asked about the campaign’s attempt to replace Democratic voters, but said he had not been contacted.
“It is clear to me that some of these issues expose huge vulnerabilities, whether or not these vulnerabilities have been exploited and how much they have been exploited is always something that requires further evidence, not just speculation,” he said. McBroom said.
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Michigan Republican congressman calls on Trump to drop voter fraud plot
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