Wayne County Republican canvassers reverse course, vote to certify election results

After three hours of being grilled by residents following a controversial vote, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers voted a second time on certifying results in the Nov. 3 election, this time making the vote count official.

The board was deadlocked earlier Tuesday evening, voting 2-2 on whether to certify the count of 867,409 ballots cast in the county.

Board members Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, both Republicans, initially voted against certifying, saying they didn’t believe information recorded in Detroit poll books were accurate enough, referring to unbalanced precinct counts in which the number of votes tabulated did not match the number of voters signed in at the polls.

The vote drew praise from the Michigan Republican Party and President Donald Trump, but the deadlock didn’t last.

Related: Trump commends Wayne County board for initial deadlock moments before vote to certify election results

After the board cast its vote, public commenters who tuned into the meeting via Zoom spent hours criticizing Palmer and Hartmann, accusing them of casting politically-motivated votes.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also took the two to task in a statement.

“In refusing to approve the results of the election in Wayne County, the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers have placed partisan politics above their legal duty to certify the election results,” she said.

Canvasser Johnathan Kinloch, a Democrat, eventually motioned to certify the results while demanding that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson conducts a comprehensive audit of all the unexplained unbalanced precincts in the county.

The board voted unanimously to certify the results.

Related: Wayne County canvassers don’t certify election results in 2-2 vote

Unbalanced precincts cannot be recounted by law, and have historically been attributed to human error. A jammed tabulator or a person signing in to vote and leaving before casting their ballot can result in imbalance.

Most of the unbalanced Wayne County precincts reported to the board Tuesday were off by three or four votes. The largest discrepancy of unbalanced votes was in Livonia, where 27 more ballots were counted than what was on record in a precinct.

Board members Allen Wilson and Kinloch, both Democrats, said their colleagues’ initial votes were politically motivated.

“(Imbalanced precincts) is a normal occurrence, this happens every election cycle and doesn’t prove there was deliberate misconduct during the election,” Wilson said. “Our job is to be objective, and I believe that voting here is fair and represents the will of Wayne County.”

It isn’t the first time out-of-balance precincts have raised concerns in Detroit, as Michigan election law doesn’t allow recounts of precincts where poll books don’t match the number of ballots cast. But the issue hasn’t stopped canvassers from certifying election results with similar issues in recent years.

In the aftermath of the 2016 election, a partial statewide recount initiated by the Jill Stein campaign uncovered significant errors that rendered 322 precincts statewide unrecountable. Of those, 128 of the precincts were located in Wayne County.

Related, from 2016: Officials to audit some Detroit precincts as issues of unrecountable ballots arise

At the time, then-Michigan Elections Director Chris Thomas — who this year served as an elections advisor for the city of Detroit — said some precincts showed substantial discrepancies between what was recorded in the poll book and what was in the voting container. Following the recount, the state conducted an audit of about 20 precincts in the city of Detroit that showed the most significant errors.

A canvass of Wayne County’s August 2020 primary results uncovered similar issues, particularly when it came to reconciling absentee precincts.

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers certified the primary results, but requested state oversight of how election workers in Detroit are trained after 72% of the absentee voting precincts in the primary election were unbalanced, and 46% of all Detroit’s precincts, both absentee and in-person, weren’t balanced.

The Michigan Secretary of State committed to staffing the city’s 182 polling locations and 134 absentee counting boards for the November election in anticipation of an influx in absentee ballots, recruiting thousands of workers to assist.

During the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting, Edith Lee-Payne, who served as a supervisor at the TCF Center, where Detroit’s absentee ballots were counted, emphasized the training that poll workers and volunteers underwent to prepare for the election.

“I marched with Dr. King, I say that with pride,” Lee-Payne said. “What you’re doing to the people of the city of Detroit and Wayne County is just really hurtful. I pray that you change your minds because your integrity is at stake here.”

Adonis Flores, a Wayne County resident and activist during the election, pleaded with the canvassers to change their minds and to stop “oppressing the votes of people of color.”

“Not certifying this election puts over 800,000 people’s votes in jeopardy and takes away our voice,” Flores said.

Prior to the board’s decision to certify the results, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the Bureau of Elections was ready to complete the canvass and address any clerical errors, noting, “this is not an indication that any votes were improperly cast or tabulated.”

Neither Republican member of the board commented on their decision to reverse course during the meeting.

The Board of State Canvassers, charged with certifying statewide results by Dec. 13, is set to meet Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and again Monday, Nov. 23.

Related news:

Detroit voter fraud court case dealt another blow, this time by Court of Appeals

As one Michigan lawsuit challenging election results is dropped, another is filed

Michigan Judge says Republicans’ claims are ‘incorrect and not credible’ in voter fraud lawsuit

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