Just a day after the state of Michigan cleared a hurdle when Wayne County Board of Canvassers unanimously voted to certify the election results in Detroit, the two Republican members of the Board announced that they want to “rescind” their votes to certify the presidential results from the county, the largest in Michigan and home to the city of Detroit, despite the fact that the board has already certified the results.
According to CNN, Republican Chair Monica Palmer and Republican board member William Hartmann sent sworn affidavits to the county’s attorney disavowing their previous votes to certify. But given that the deadline for county certification has already passed, it is unclear what legal remedy or legitimate argument these two Republican officials can make to formally rescind their votes and undo the certification.
Both Palmer and Hartmann had initially voted against certification during their Tuesday night meeting, leaving the board in a 2-2 deadlock. After hours of public pressure and complaints that they were brazenly disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters from the majority-Black city of Detroit, the Republicans changed their votes and the certification passed unanimously.
Democratic Vice-Chair Jonathan Kinloch told CNN that the county certification date of November 17 is a definitive deadline and that board members’ votes cannot be changed after the fact. The GOP officials sent their affidavits to the county, but the action stops there. They have not filed any lawsuits to try to force the county to call a new meeting.
“There is no further action that can be taken in regards to the certification,” Kinloch said.
Also Thursday, CNN reports, “the Trump campaign dropped its federal lawsuit in Michigan that alleged voting irregularities and had asked the court to stop certification of the votes in Wayne County, home to Detroit. Its filing included the affidavits from the two Republican board members.”
The report notes that “certification is usually a formality, but President Donald Trump is trying to block or delay the process in key states as part of a long-shot effort to overturn his election defeat through the Electoral College.”
