The two Republicans on Michigan’s Wayne County board of canvassers said on Wednesday night that they were coerced into certifying the presidential election results and sought to rescind their votes.
Partisan pressure: Monica Palmer and William Hartmann on Tuesday night initially voted not to certify the county’s tally, but reversed themselves less than two hours later amid fierce condemnation from Democrats.
The Republicans’ second about-face, 24 hours after the first, came in signed affidavits in which they said the two Democrats on the board, as well as members of the public, called them racists and berated them for allegedly politicizing the electoral process.
- “After the vote, the public comment period began and dozens of people made personal remarks against me and Mr. Hartmann,” wrote Palmer, the board’s chairman.
- “The comments made accusations of racism and threatened me and members of my family. The public comment continued for over two hours and I felt pressured to continue the meeting without a break.”
- Palmer told The Detroit News on Thursday that she reported threatening messages prompted by her opposition to the certification to law enforcement.
“[We] were berated and ridiculed by members of the public and other Board members,” Hartmann wrote in his affidavit. “This conduct included specious claims that I was racially motivated in my decision.”
- Wayne County includes Detroit, a mostly black city; the county voted 2-1 for Democrat Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.
A broken promise?: Palmer and Hartmann also expressed concern in their affidavits that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, wouldn’t honor the board’s call for an audit of the dozens of Wayne County precincts whose voting records did not match the official tally.
- The audit request was part of a compromise that convinced the Republican canvassers to vote for certification.
- “I felt misled,” Palmer told the Washington Post on Wednesday, before signing the affidavit. “I stand firm in not certifying Wayne County without the audit.”
- Palmer said she was not trying to delay the certification of Biden’s win in Michigan, where the Democrat beat Trump by nearly 160,000 votes, according to unofficial results.
Jonathan Kinloch, the Wayne County board of canvassers’ Democratic vice chairman, told the Post it was anyway too late for Palmer and Hartmann to stop certification because the votes had already been sent to the secretary of state.
- “Do they understand how they are making us look as a body?” Kinloch added. “We have such an amazing and important role in the democratic process, and they’re turning it on its head.”
- Monday is the deadline for a statewide board to certify the election results
The Trump factor: Palmer acknowledged to the Post later on Wednesday that her change of heart came after Trump called her by phone on Tuesday night.
- “He was checking in to make sure I was safe after hearing the threats and doxing that had occurred,” she said, denying that the president had pressured her to switch her vote.
- Hartmann did not respond to request for comment.
As the Wayne County certification drama unfolded on Tuesday night, Trump cheered the board’s initial deadlock and then claimed the Republican canvassers were “FORCED to change their vote.”
- Trump also said “Democrats cheated big time, and got caught” in Michigan and declared he was the true winner of the state.
- On Fox News late Tuesday, Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis said, “This is absolutely mob rule at this point.”
What’s next?: Trump has insisted that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him and that he is the legitimate president-elect even though Biden’s Electoral College advantage appears insurmountable.
- The Trump campaign has mounted legal challenges against the results in several battleground states that broke for Biden, but it has so far failed to provide evidence for its claims of widespread electoral fraud.
- Most recently, on Wednesday, the campaign officially requested a partial recount in Wisconsin, where Biden has about a 20,000-vote unofficial advantage, alleging “mistakes and fraud” across the state.
