Michigan won't certify votes

[SassyLady]

https://youtu.be/yoaa9YtTtQA

[SassyLady]

Michigan's largest county fails to certify election results over absentee ballot concerns
The decision by the Wayne County board of canvassers injects new drama into a legal fight waged by President Trump's campaign in several battleground states.




The Wayne County Board of Canvassers deadlocked 2-2, with both Republican members refusing to certify the results after discrepancies were discovered in absentee ballot poll books. Similar problems were discovered in the county's summer primary and the November 2016 election but did not impact the board's vote then.
Under Michigan law, a county that fails to canvass within 14 days after the election must yield its documentation to the Secretary of State's office and Board of State Canvassers to determine if the results should be accepted.
The dramatic deadlock came just a week after a city of Detroit elections worker named Jessy Jacob submitted an affidavit (https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/thuammultiple-michigan-residents-swear-under-oath-they-witnessed)saying she personally witnessed and was instructed by supervisors herself to back date absentee ballots the day after the election to make votes look like they had arrived on or before Nov. 3. Jacob testified she believed thousands of ballots had been altered.
Tuesday's decision led to partisan bickering almost immediately. Wayne County Canvassing Board Vice Chairman Jonathan Kinloch, slammed his two GOP colleague's actions as "reckless and irresponsible," according to the Detroit News. (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/17/wayne-county-canvassers-deadlock-certifying-november-3-election-results/6324274002/)
Chairwoman Monica Palmer, a Republican, said the refusal to certify results was based on the fact that she and her GOP colleague "believe that we do not have complete and accurate information in those poll books."
Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser for the Trump campaign, immediately hailed the decision, telling a Just the News-Real America's Voice special on Tuesday night that it could impact the entire state of Michigan's ability to certify the results.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/breaking-michigans-largest-county-fails-certify-election-results

[SassyLady]

I'm so tired of this BS

Wayne Co. canvassers certify election results after initial deadlockBeth LeBlanc (https://www.detroitnews.com/staff/2684020001/beth-leblanc/)Francis X. Donnelly (https://www.detroitnews.com/staff/2684029001/francis-x-donnelly/)Craig Mauger (https://www.detroitnews.com/staff/2683993001/craig-mauger/)The Detroit News


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The Wayne County Board of Canvassers abruptly changed course Tuesday night and certified the results of the Nov. 3 election after initially deadlocking 2-2 along party lines, which could have delayed the state process for authorizing results.
The deadlock decision had been lauded by Republicans but decried by Democrats. During a public comment session, the vote was described as a targeted attack on majority-Black Detroit.
After hours of angry responses from Wayne County residents,the change in course wasapproved by the two Republican and two Democratic canvassers with the demand that the Secretary of State's office conduct a "comprehensive audit" of "unexplained precincts."
The high-stakes vote, with the eyes of the nation on Michigan's largest county, apparently took place while the video stream for the virtual meeting wasn't working. "That passed unanimously," Republican board member William Hartmann said when the video began functioning again. "We just voted on that."
Moments later, he said, "We're going to adjourn," and the board ended its meeting at 9:08 p.m.
Minutes after that, President Donald Trump tweeted, based on the past deadlocked vote, "Wow! Michigan just refused to certify the election results! Having courage is a beautiful thing. The USA stands proud!"

[url]https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/17/wayne-county-canvassers-deadlock-certifying-november-3-election-results/6324274002/

[Kathianne]

I'm so tired of this BS
They did, though I’m uncertain that the two changed their minds.

[Kathianne]

Found this this morning. It pretty much is what I think too. I'm not thinking, 'Why do we always turn the other cheek; I'm thinking that what this country has been built upon cannot be destroyed in reactionary anger, just to prove we can fight like they always do.':

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2020/11/18/disaster-averted-wayne-county-board-reverses-course-certifies-election-results/

Disaster Averted: Wayne County Board Reverses Course, Certifies Election Results
ED MORRISSEYPosted at 8:21 am on November 18, 2020





For one brief moment in time, Wayne County Republicans nearly disenfranchised almost 900,000 voters in Michigan in an attempt to use brute partisan force to change the results of the election. After a contentious hearing in which Detroit voters accused the two GOP commissioners of attempting to undermine the black vote in Michigan, the pair swapped positions and certified the election results:


After what was an unprecedented 2-2 deadlock along partisan lines, with the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers voting against certifying the county’s November election results, the board unanimously voted to certify the results late Tuesday night.


The board also passed a resolution calling on Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to conduct an independent comprehensive audit of all of the jurisdictions in the county that recorded unexplained discrepancies between the number of absentee ballots recorded as cast and the number of absentee ballots counted.


The state party initially threw their support behind the deadlock that would have forced the state legislature to decide electors in the state:


Disaster averted: Wayne County board reverses course, certifies election results
Just minutes after the Republican members had voted against certifying the results, the Michigan Republican Party released a statement from Laura Cox, who chairs the state party.


“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.


Trump himself seemed particularly enthused about the move, cheering it on in a series of tweets such as this:


Unfortunately, it turns out that other Republicans didn’t share the same enthusiasm for tossing out the results of an election. The Wayne County board’s later reversal probably had more to do with the GOP leader of the legislature refusing to play along:


Democrat Joe Biden is the president-elect, and while Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature is investigating the election, it will not award the state’s 16 electors to GOP President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told Bridge on Tuesday. …


Conservative groups have also started phone and letter-writing campaigns in an attempt to persuade legislative Republicans to decide the election for Trump.


“That’s not going to happen,” Shirkey, R-Clarklake, said in a wide-ranging interview with Bridge Michigan. He noted state law awards electors to the winner of the state’s popular vote. And Biden won the state by more than 146,000 votes, according to unofficial results.


“We are going to follow the law and follow the process,” he said. “I do believe there’s reason to go slow and deliberate as we evaluate the allegations that have been raised.”


Remember that this isn’t Arizona or Georgia. Trump won Michigan in 2016 by a little over 10,000 votes, but he lost in 2020 by fourteen times that amount. Imagine the screaming from Republicans if Hillary Clinton had tried an end run around Trump-heavy counting on the basis of election irregularities in this way.


Shirkey wants the legislature to get to the bottom of any discrepancies too, but he’s not interested in committing political suicide by effectively making elections worthless just to get on Trump’s good side momentarily. His standing depends on respecting election results, after all. It’s clear that the level of discrepancies don’t add up to anything close that would overturn the election, and Shirkey’s not sure why Trump keeps insisting that he won:


Asked about Trump’s repeated claims that he won Michigan, the highest-ranking Republican in the state Legislature said he does not know what the president is thinking.


“I’d be hard-pressed to figure out why he’s done a lot of the things that he’s done, and said a lot of the things that he said, so I’m not going to speculate in this case,” Shirkey said.


After Shirkey made it clear that the legislature wouldn’t be voiding the election results, the Republican commissioners on the Wayne County board sounded a retreat. The unanimous vote to certify the county results will allow the state to certify results, which itself then provides opportunities for challenges on various grounds. The legislature still plans to investigate irregularities in both the primaries and the general election, but it’s not about to torch the same democratic processes that guarantee their authority to conduct those investigations.


At some point, Republicans and conservatives especially had better think through the implications of cheering the idea of invalidating elections and disenfranchising massive blocs of voters. Progressives are the entities that cheer on the replacement of institutions, including elections and constitutional governance in favor of the populist revolt model, a la CHAZ. That way bulldozes rights and imposes the tyranny of the mob. Conservatism is supposed to conserve those institutions while realigning them on proper constitutional principles, in order to best preserve natural rights. If a 146,000-vote popular vote win in a state no longer holds any value and all that matters is power and grasping it at any cost, then what precisely are we conserving?


For a last thought, allow me to share one of the key scenes from the film A Man for All Seasons. We conserve institutions of pluralistic and representative democracy — including elections — for a reason, because without them … the devil always turns back on us.


I hate Covid, I mean I really, really do. My best friend's dad got it in hospital or nursing home he went to for 2 days for rehab. After 3 weeks in hospital following the Covid, he recovered and wanted to go home-no chemo and no nursing home. He died after 8 days of home.

What did they all watch when home or the two that could sit in the hospital? News-the election that won't end. Now my friend and her whole family are Trump supporters for both elections. They normally watch the 10 o'clock news and other than catching a bit on radio in car, go about their lives.

All the non-stop talk about 'stolen' and such, they are ready for President-Elect (fake title) Biden. Not because they want him, just that in spite of the weird way the counts went-because of way too many mail votes, in spite of 'found' votes in GA., nothing is really changing the outcome. It's played out and rather than waiting for recounts and certifications and such, Trump keeps tweeting about 'stolen' and his surrogates keep hinting of 'proof coming,' which doesn't. He's undermining the system he says he's trying to protect. He's not talking about figuring out how to protect future elections from the chaos of this one. He's not addressing that fraud and human mistakes are part and parcel of all elections and we should be working at preventing, minimizing both as much as possible. He's going out with as much chaos as possible.

Speaking of which:

https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2020/11/18/trump-fires-dhs-election-security-chief/


Trump Fires DHS Election Security Chief
JAZZ SHAWPosted at 8:01 am on November 18, 2020




While there had been some speculation making the rounds this week, I’ll confess that I was surprised yesterday to learn that President Trump had gone ahead and fired Christopher Krebs, the head of the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Since the President fired him via tweet (though it’s a tweet that no longer seems to exist), we don’t have much to go on as to why Krebs needed to be terminated now beyond a single statement that he made regarding the validity of the recent elections. Krebs had said there “is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” That clearly didn’t sit well with the President. (AP)


President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired the director of the federal agency that vouched for the reliability of the 2020 election.


Trump fired Christopher Krebs in a tweet, saying his recent statement defending the security of the election was “highly inaccurate.”


The firing of Krebs, a Trump appointee and director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, comes as Trump is refusing to recognize the victory of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and removing high-level officials seen as insufficiently loyal.


Krebs had run CISA since shortly after its initial creation in 2016 and Trump appointed him to the position himself. I don’t recall ever hearing any issues regarding his performance or competence until this week. In fact, just to be totally honest, I had to go Google him when this news first showed up. For what it’s worth, Krebs appeared to take the news pretty well.


He’s already changed his Twitter profile in line with recent developments. It now reads, “Used to be the 1st Director @CISAgov. Now I’m going to reintroduce myself to my family, fire up the BGE, watch @UVa sports, and ride bikes.”


I’ve got to say that this isn’t a very good look for the President. Krebs’ agency was in charge of maintaining the cybersecurity of the election process. That was his job. We all know by now that there were plenty of isolated incidents of voter fraud taking place, including ballot harvesting and individuals requesting ballots for their dead relatives. But that’s not the sort of thing Krebs was talking about. He clearly seemed to be referring to recurring stories about the Dominion voting machines supposedly fudging massive numbers of ballots in Joe Biden’s favor. But if Trump’s own key person on that matter couldn’t turn up the evidence, where are we supposed to find it?


Assuming that there are no major reversals in multiple states (and I’m sorry to say that’s not looking likely at all, sports fans), Krebs would have probably been out of office shortly after Joe Biden was sworn in anyway. I’ve tried to be as supportive of this president as possible ever since he won the nomination four years ago, but firing Krebs in this fashion just makes him look petty and overreactive.


Donald Trump has made enormous progress for our country in four years on a host of issues that are important to me. I don’t need to list them all yet again here. But if the fates have determined that he’s going to be a one-term president, I would prefer to see him make his exit in a dignified manner and let history be his judge. Booting Krebs (and Esper for that matter) over nothing more than perceived disloyalty in a few public remarks just feeds more ammunition to his detractors who are already seeking to erase all of Trump’s accomplishments from the public record. I know the President is within his rights to handle personnel matters in this fashion, but it’s still disappointing.