November 4, 2020

Michigan’s Secretary of State Promises Results Within a Day

Biden’s campaign says its lead in the state leaves him “on track for a win.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.NS via ZUMA Wire

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The state of Michigan has about 100,000 votes left to count, with those results expected within 24 hours, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said during a Wednesday morning briefing.

As of 11:25 a.m., the state’s published vote counts showed former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of President Donald Trump by a little more than 33,000 votes. Trump won Michigan in 2016 by 10,704 votes.

In an early-morning speech from the White House, Trump falsely claimed he’d won the election, and said that “we want all voting to stop.” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager, fired back on Wednesday morning, saying that “Joe Biden is on track to win this election, and he will be the next president of the United States,” citing apparent leads in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada.

Bob Bauer, Biden’s lead election lawyer, assailed Republican state legislatures in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, for a purposeful effort to aid Trump by blocking the pre-Election Day counting of ballots: “They were looking to log-jam that process,” he said “And they did that with the precise effort to set up the claim that the president was making yesterday.” Proposals for the ability to process and count mail ballots at least a week before election day, in order to prevent confusion and a window for disinformation much like we’re seeing right now, were shot down by Michigan Republicans. A Republican proposal to allow for 10 hours of pre-processing, but not counting, was all that was eventually adopted.

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