Michigan elections board certifies results from presidential election, sealing Biden’s win in state
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The Michigan board responsible for certifying the state’s election results has approved the votes from the 2020 election, despite Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine the outcome and delay president-elect Joe Biden’s transition to the White House.
A 3-1 vote along partisan lines to certify the results moves Mr Biden closer to receiving the swing state’s 16 electoral college votes.
During a public hearing on Monday before the board’s approval, a Republican member of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers deflected a GOP lawyer’s call to delay and audit the results.
“We have a duty to certify based on these returns, and we are limited to these returns,” said board member Aaron Van Langevelde, adding that there is “no language in the law” that granted the board authority to do so.
“We can’t create out of thin air an adjournment,” he said.
He later said that the board has “a clear legal duty to certify the results of the elections.”
"We cannot and should not go beyond that,” he said, adding that an audit could be performed, but not under the board’s authority.
The hearing drew international attention, transforming an otherwise routine procedural meeting into an intensely scrutinised event with thousands of viewers watching the nearly three-hour-long meeting, after the president had tried to delay certifying results in a state he lost by roughly 1540,000 votes.
