Wayne County, Michigan officials backtrack and agree to certify elections results after 2 GOP members initially blocked certification of results

Poll workers in Detroit, Michigan are seen beginning to count ballots during the 2020 general election on November 3, 2020.

Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

• Wayne County, Michigan, election canvassers agreed to certify the election results on Tuesday. 
• The two GOP members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially refused to vote in favor of certification. 
• The GOP members claimed there were inconsistencies, however, Democrats in the state said they were expected and not part of a conspiracy fraud effort.
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The four canvassers in Wayne County, Michigan, have agreed to certify the election results after the two Republican members initially voted against certification. 

Monica Palmer and William Hartmann of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially said there were discrepancies in the results from the county's 43 jurisdictions including Detroit, the Detroit Free Press reported. 

"I believe that we do not have complete and accurate information on those poll books," Palmer, the chair of the committee said, earlier in the day.

The board reached a compromise later in the day after condemnation over the refusal to certify the results, The Washington Post reported. In addition to certifying the results, the canvassers called on Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to audit votes in precincts where there were discrepancies. Benson said it's normal for there to be some clerical inconsistencies, especially with record turnouts. 

"The evidence is clear — there were no irregularities, there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and in fact there were simply minor clerical errors," Benson said on Tuesday night in an interview with CNN. "That really isn't a valid reason in my view, and apparently ultimately the board, to invalidate and silence the voices of voters in the state's largest county. So I think they did the right thing, they performed their duty and they certified the election for the voters in Wayne County."

President Donald Trump has falsely claimed mass voter fraud, including in Michigan and especially in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, a city with a high population of Black Americans who voted largely in favor of President-elect Joe Biden. These claims are unsubstantiated.

Trump supported the initial deadlock on certification. 

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020

 

Democratic Vice Chairman Jonathan Kinloch called the deadlock, "reckless and irresponsible," The Detroit News reported. 

"There is no reason under the sun for us to have not certified this election," Kinloch said. "I believe that politics made its presence known here today."

Read more: EXCLUSIVE: Documents reveal Trump is building his own 'deep state' by leaving political appointees behind in government for the Biden administration

Kinlock said the errors were not part of any fraud conspiracy theory but natural human error. 

The Detroit Free Press reported that in the primary in August, all four members voted to certify those results despite also having unexplained discrepancies.

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