Outgoing President Donald Trump continues to push the lie that widespread voter fraud—of which there is no evidence—tipped the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden.
What's more, many Republicans in government positions are following the President's lead in undermining public faith in American democracy.
General Services Administration head Emily Murphy still refuses to sign the required paperwork allocating resources like office space and government data to the incoming Biden team for coordinating a transition. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to throw out legally cast ballots.
And on Tuesday night, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers in the swing state of Michigan initially refused to certify their election results.
Wayne County is the most populated county in Michigan. In it is the city of Detroit, which is around 80% Black.
The board, which consists of two Democrats and two Republicans, was initially deadlocked, with its Republicans—William Hartmann and Monica Palmer—refusing to certify.
The two cited irregularities in which the vote numbers recorded in poll books didn't match with the number of confirmed votes, a phenomenon that occurred in 2016 (the results were still certified) and which Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson assured was "not an indication that any votes were improperly cast or counted."
Monica Palmer said that she would be willing to certify other parts of Wayne County except for Detroit—a statement which drew ire for its racism, especially considering the greater number of irregularities in nearby Livonia—a 90 percent white suburb.
With the board deadlocked, the decision was headed to the state board and presented the possibility that Michigan's Republican legislature would choose the state's electors.
Trump celebrated the apparent victory in a string of jovial tweets.
Wow! Michigan just refused to certify the election results! Having courage is a beautiful thing. The USA stands proud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
Flip Michigan back to TRUMP. Detroit, not surprisingly, has tremendous problems! https://t.co/RHhuoSMICg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
More votes than people, and that is the least of it!!! https://t.co/mSO4Ufwn2g
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
Trump falsely claimed that there were more votes cast than there were people in Wayne County. In reality, Wayne County saw around 867 thousand votes cast out of over a million registered voters.
Minutes after Trump's Twitter celebration, the Board reconsidered and voted unanimously to certify the results while also demanding a state audit of Wayne County's votes.
People ridiculed Trump for celebrating without knowing the latest development—including Secretary Benson.
Wrong again. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/VPKC91o4hw
— Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) November 18, 2020
Um, who is going to tell him...👀 https://t.co/vqef6JLlSI
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 18, 2020
I have some bad news, chumpy. https://t.co/mtxMJbczuD
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) November 18, 2020
While the decision has already been reversed, take a moment to contemplate the President of the United States cheering on a partisan refusal to certify election results based on the flimsiest of pretenses. https://t.co/B0uZImIgPI
— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) November 18, 2020
Actually, nope.
Great breaking news tonight:
Wayne County Board of Canvassers just unanimously certified the results of the election. https://t.co/ovywMJcYbN
— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) November 18, 2020
When you attempt to take a victory lap after losing the race https://t.co/D9pnDzXLJV
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 18, 2020
Trump eventually heard the news, and once again lied that there were more votes cast than people in Wayne County.
Wrong! At first they voted against because there were far more VOTES than PEOPLE (Sad!). Then they were threatened, screamed at and viciously harassed, and were FORCED to change their vote, but then REFUSED, as American patriots, to sign the documents. 71% MESS. Don't Harass! https://t.co/n5frpesHfD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
The mockery only continued from there.
fact check: Wayne County has 1,410,294 registered voters and only 867,409 of them voted. but cool story my deteriorating dude. what else have the barking noises in your head been telling you? I'm sure we're about to find out (source: https://t.co/3wH8k2dQjC)
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) November 18, 2020
"71% MESS. Don't Harass!" is a good description of my 20s.
— Danny Groner (@DannyGroner) November 18, 2020
That's one way of telling what happened. (The wrong lying way.)
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) November 18, 2020
Biden won the state of Michigan by nearly 150 thousand votes.
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AMC