by Bruce Walker
Michigan’s 16 electors unanimously cast ballots for presumptive President-elect Joseph Biden and presumptive Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
The event transpired in the Senate chamber of the Michigan State Capitol on Monday afternoon, and was chaired by Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.
The ceremony is a prelude to the Jan. 6, 2021, count of every U.S. Electoral College vote by members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. If Biden and Harris receive 270 or more electoral votes, they will be declared victors of the 2020 national election.
Prior to electors voting, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivered comments in which she declared the 2020 election “truly historic,” citing more than 5.5 million ballots cast in Michigan alone.
Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump in the state by 154,000 votes, or 2.8% of the total vote.
“Just like every other presidential election year, Michigan’s 16 delegates came together to cast their ballots for the candidate who won the most votes in our state,” Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said.
Addressing accusations of widespread election irregularities as well as allegations of voter fraud from President Donald Trump and a portion of his supporters, Ananich continued, “but unlike any other presidential election year, every step to get us to this point was fought by conspiracy theorists and people who put party over country.
“I am genuinely hopeful that now that this election is more than a month behind us, we can move on and collectively root for the success of the incoming president.”
The vote occurred in the State Capitol on the same day the Michigan legislature’s offices were closed due to local law enforcement concerns.
“The decision was not made because of anticipated protests, but was made based on credible threats of violence,” Amber McCann, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, said.
While the electors gathered inside, police barred entry from a group of Republicans seeking to introduce their own slate of electors.
Suspicions regarding the integrity of the election stem in part from a malfunction in Antrim County in which Biden garnered 3,000 more votes than Trump. A subsequent manual tabulation revised that tally and resulted in Trump defeating Biden by 2,500 votes.
“Let’s be clear: Michigan’s Nov. 3 general election in Michigan and across the country was the most secure in the nation’s history,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a statement Monday afternoon.
Benson was responding to a court ruling that grants Allied Security Operations Group permission to release publicly its forensic report on the Dominion software used in Antrim County.
“There continues to be no evidence of widespread fraud, as affirmed by state and federal agencies including Attorney General William Barr, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” Benson continued.
“If the Trump campaign had any actual evidence of wrongdoing – or genuine suspicion thereof – they could have requested a hand recount of every ballot in the state,” Benson added. “They did not, instead choosing to allow shadowy organizations claiming expertise to throw around baseless claims of fraud in an effort to mislead American voters and undermine the integrity of the election. Their actions are a corruption of the courts and the rule of law, as the release of today’s report clearly demonstrates.”
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
Photo “Michigan Capitol” by Nikopoley. CC BY-SA 3.o.
