Michigan completes general election audits, no foul play found
Updated Mar 02, 2021; Posted Mar 02, 2021
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson today announced that all 250 of Michigan’s election audits are completed and none turned up evidence of foul play in the 2020 General Election.
Benson said the audit process, led by county clerks with the support of city and township clerks, confirmed the integrity and accuracy of the state’s election process. More than 1,300 clerks examined hand ballots, tabulating machines and absentee county board processes as part of the audits.
“We’ve responded to every question and claim and the evidence is clear,” Benson said. “It is time for leaders across the political spectrum to tell their constituents the truth, that our election was the most secure in history, and the results accurately reflect the will of Michigan’s voters.”
More so, Benson said the audits should reinstate people’s confidence in Michigan’s voting process after former president Donald Trump and Republican politicians sought to undermine elections in Detroit and Antrim County with meritless claims that out-of-balance precincts were proof of election fraud.
As part of the audits, clerks counted every ballot cast for president in Antrim County. Benson said the audit found that the Dominion machines used there accurately counted all the ballots. Officials also did a statewide audit exercise in which they had counted votes cast for president on more than 18,000 ballots randomly selected across the state, which affirmed the outcome of the presidential election summed previously by tabulation machines.
Detroit’s absentee counting board was under scrutiny after Republican politicians circulated “lies, baseless conspiracies, and misleading claims” about the city’s voting processes, Benson said.
Benson said clerical errors were made but that election workers properly counted 174,000 ballots cast by registered voters and reviewed by the clerk’s office. More so, auditors found 83% of Detroit’s counting boards were balanced, up from 27% at the close of the Wayne County canvass. Of all the ballots cast in Detroit, only 17 were out of balance.
“No leader or person of power elected, or otherwise, should have ever played political games with the integrity of our elections. But those who did must stop now,” Benson said. “These audits, carried out by hundreds of clerks across the political spectrum and hailing from all parts of our state, make it clear that it is time to acknowledge the truth and move forward. Our democracy requires this of all of us.”
Auditors made like conclusions in audits of other large cities’ absentee ballot counting boards. In Grand Rapids, 87% were balanced compared to 62 percent at the end of the county canvass, and only eight ballots were out of balance. In Livonia, 77% were balanced compared to 34% at the end of the county canvass, and only one ballot was out of balance. In Sterling Heights, 71% were balanced compared to 58% at the end of the county canvass, and the number of ballots out of balance was four.
Benson said out-of-balance precincts are common in the election process because of clerical errors, like when an election worker failed to note that a voter at the polls checked in and left with a ballot in their hand. Such mistakes are often corrected by county clerks’ counting boards but time constraints and largely populated jurisdictions can make the process harder, Benson said.
“(Auditors) found that the reason many of the counting boards were left out of balance without explanation at the end of the county canvass was simply (that) canvassers ran out of time,” Benson said. “If state lawmakers truly want to affirm faith in our elections, they will provide more time to election officials to process absentee ballots before Election Day, and canvass them afterward. Had they done this prior to November, after clerks and I asked them to for more than a year, they could have pre-emptively debunked many of the lies that have since attacked our democracy.”
Benson’s legislative agenda for elections,
Advancing the Vote, Protecting Democracy, was released last month. The Bureau of Elections is drafting a final report on audit findings, which will be made available publicly.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson today announced that all 250 of Michigan’s election audits are completed and none turned up evidence of foul play in the 2020 General Election.
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