© Carlos Osorio/AP PhotoAbsentee ballots are processed at the central counting board in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 4, 2020.
Michigan's most populous county reversed course on Nov. 17 and unanimously certified its Nov. 3 election results, shortly
after two GOP members of Michigan's Wayne County Board of Canvassers cast a vote against the move which resulted in a deadlocked 2-2 vote.
The unanimous vote to certify the results came
on the condition that the secretary of state's office conduct a comprehensive audit of the unexplained precincts across the county.
The abrupt reversal followed a Tuesday evening meeting, during which Board Chairwoman Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, both Republicans, initially cast votes against certifying the results, while Democrats Allen Wilson and Board Vice Chair Jonathan Kinloch voted in favor of certification.
Palmer had said her refusal to certify results for the county's 43 jurisdictions, including Detroit, was based on the fact that she and Hartmann believe that they "do not have complete and accurate information in those poll books."
She also said that while she would have been open to certifying election results in some jurisdictions,
others including Detroit — the state's largest voting jurisdiction — have recorded unexplained discrepancies.
After the four board members cast their votes, Palmer and Hartmann listened to a number of spectators over Zoom, who criticized their decision,
The Associated Press reported.
The pair were reportedly called a "disgrace" by Rev. Wendell Anthony, a pastor and head of the Detroit branch of the civil rights organization the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
"You have extracted a black city out of a county and said the only ones that are at fault is the city of Detroit, where 80 percent of the people who reside here are African Americans. Shame on you!" Anthony said.
After the meeting, Hartmann said the intense criticism didn't cause him to change his vote. Rather, he said he acted because the board had agreed to ask the secretary of state to investigate Detroit's election results.
The Trump campaign, Wayne County Board of Canvassers and the NAACP didn't immediately respond to requests for comment by The Epoch Times.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign said in a statement that Biden "convincingly won Michigan by 14 times the margin of Donald Trump in 2016 and state election officials have made clear that there's zero evidence of fraud."
Tuesday's meeting came after a lawsuit to delay the certification was rejected by the Michigan Court of Appeals on Monday. Michael Riordan, the presiding judge on the appeals court,
wrote that the appeal request was denied "for failure to persuade the Court of the existence of manifest error requiring reversal."
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan welcomed the news in a statement.
"Glad to see common sense prevailed in the end," Duggan said. "Thank you to all those citizens who spoke up so passionately. You made the difference!"
Before news of the reversal came to light, Laura Cox, chair of the Michigan Republican Party, praised the efforts of the Michigan GOP, the Republican National Committee, and the Trump Campaign.
"I am proud that, due to the efforts of the Michigan Republican Party, the Republican National Committee and the Trump Campaign, enough evidence of irregularities and potential voter fraud was uncovered resulting in the Wayne County Board of Canvassers refusing to certify their election results," Cox said in a statement.
Lavora Barnes, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, meanwhile called the vote "an outrageous display of partisan posturing."
"Monica Palmer and William Hartmann have chosen to tarnish their personal legacy by picking up the GOP banner of making allegations without any evidence," Barnes said. "For the Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers to buy into conspiracy theories and completely disregard the will of the voters in Michigan is not only shameful but a complete dereliction of duties."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, told MSNBC Tuesday evening that there is "no question" that Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the state of Michigan.
While a number of news outlets declared Biden the winner, The Epoch Times
won't declare a winner of the 2020 presidential election until all results are certified and any legal challenges are resolved.
Although media outlets can make their own projections as to the winner of the election, state electors and the Electoral College are the bodies that are officially tasked with declaring a presidential winner. Each state has different deadlines for when officials must certify their election results, and the Electoral College votes on Dec. 14.
Comment: Michigan's secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson,
wrote off the errors in those precincts as follows:
"What was identified were bookkeeping errors, simply incidents where voters may have showed up to a precinct but maybe have ultimately decided not to vote and leave, or perhaps ballots placed in an envelope that then should go through a machine, just different things that occurred throughout the day when you have a very high turnout election that oftentimes aren't fully reflected in the bookkeeping," Benson, a Democrat, said during a virtual appearance on CNN's "New Day."
Clear as mud! Here are the specifics the GOP members are alleging:
Check out this deranged freak-job:
The Republicans who flipped their votes were called racist and not-so-subtly threatened on the zoom call.
UPDATE: In
another turnaround, the Republican members who changed their votes have
rescinded their votes, thus blocking the certification process.
In an extraordinary turnabout that foreshadows possible legal action, the two GOP members of Wayne County's election board signed affidavits Wednesday night alleging they were bullied and misled into approving election results in Michigan's largest metropolis and do not believe the votes should be certified until serious irregularities in Detroit votes are resolved.
The statements by Wayne County Board of Canvassers Chairwoman Monica Palmer and fellow GOP member William C. Hartmann rescinding their votes from a day earlier threw into question anew whether Michigan's presidential vote currently favoring Democrat Joe Biden will be certified. They also signaled a possible legal confrontation ahead.
"I voted not to certify, and I still believe this vote should not be certified," Hartmann said in his affidavits. "Until these questions are addressed, I remain opposed to certification of the Wayne County results."
Added Palmer in her affidavit: "I rescind my prior vote to certify Wayne County elections."
Both GOP board members said their concerns included discrepancies in nearly three quarters of Detroit's precinct poll books where ballots are supposed to be matched to qualified voters.
"The Wayne County election had serious process flaws which deserve investigation. I continue to ask for information to assure Wayne County voters that these elections were conducted fairly and accurately. Despite repeated requests I have not received the requisite information and believe an additional 10 days of canvas by the State Board of canvassers will help provide the information necessary," Palmer explained.
Their pronouncements come just 24 hours after a chaotic meeting in which the county's election board initially failed to certify the Nov. 3 election results during a 2-2 deadlocked vote when both Palmer and Hartmann voted against certification. But after hours of contentious public comment and criticism -- including Democratic allegations of racism and threats against their safety -- the two GOP members struck a deal to certify the elections in return for a promise of a thorough audit.
Palmer and Hartmann said Wednesday they learned that state officials had reneged or would not honor the audit, leaving them no recourse but to oppose certification until more investigation could be performed.
It is unclear whether the Tuesday night compromise was binding or could be changed. But both GOP members said in the affidavits they felt misled and unduly pressured to change their positions the night earlier.
"The comments made accusations of racism and threatened me and members of my family," Palmer said in her affidavit.
The board members' actions were immediately hailed by Phill Kline, head of the conservative-leaning Thomas More Society's Amistad Project, which has been contesting election irregularities in several key battleground states like Michigan.
"I'm pleased Mr. Hartmann and Ms. Palmer reiterated their opposition to the certification of the Wayne County results despite bullying and threats and in the face of broken promises by Michigan's Secretary of State," Kline told Just the News. "Mr. Hartman is properly demanding answers from Wayne County election officials."
You can read their affidavits here.
File 20201118184530537.pdf File img-201118215108 (1).pdf
And here's another witness to the fraud in Detroit:
Karamo
describes witnessing the 3:30 am Biden ballot dump. You know, the one the media constantly says didn't exist.
Karamo saw that there was no effective review of signatures on those ballots at the counting boards. She describes seeing ballots that should have been spoiled, instead counted for Biden, with poll workers saying "I think that should go to the Democrat." Her challenges to bad ballots were IGNORED.
She also describes that GOP Poll Challengers would not be hired by the City of Detroit, helping to explain what other witnesses have also described: a completely lopsided ratio of Democrats to Republicans, ensuring that Republicans could not protect the integrity of the ballot counting process in Detroit. Karamo describes calling and attempting to apply several times to be an official poll worker and being denied, even though the Clerk lied and told her that not enough Republicans had applied.
According to Karamo the Republicans were systemically denied access to observe the vote count.
"They were like Demons!" Karamo says.
Comment: Michigan's secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, wrote off the errors in those precincts as follows: Clear as mud! Here are the specifics the GOP members are alleging:
Check out this deranged freak-job:
The Republicans who flipped their votes were called racist and not-so-subtly threatened on the zoom call.
UPDATE: In another turnaround, the Republican members who changed their votes have rescinded their votes, thus blocking the certification process. And here's another witness to the fraud in Detroit:
Karamo describes witnessing the 3:30 am Biden ballot dump. You know, the one the media constantly says didn't exist.