Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) said Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Live” that there was “no legal avenue” for two members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers to reverse their votes.
Benson was reacting to Monica Palmer, the Republican chairwoman, and William Hartmann, the other Republican member of the four-person Wayne County board signing affidavits late Wednesday, saying they want to rescind their votes to certify the county’s election results.
Palmer and Hartman initially voting against certification then later voted for it after hearing from outraged voters on Tuesday.
Benson said, “Well, notably, there are a lot of protocols in place under which the canvas and the county board meet. It has to be an open meeting. There has to be a vote taken, there has to be an adjournment. All of those things lead into an official certification, and all those things have happened here. So there is really no legal avenue for any type of overturning of that.”
She continued, “That doesn’t mean — again, this has been par for the course —you won’t see a PR strategy to try to sew seeds of doubt and create confusion about the process. But the law is actually quite clear on this. Every county in Michigan has certified the results following a post-election canvas. That certification has now been given to the state Board of Canvassers. They are scheduled to meet on Monday to formally certify the state-wide electors and move forward from there.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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