Michigan officials voted Monday afternoon to certify Joe Biden’s election victory over President Trump, giving Biden the state’s 16 Electoral College votes.
The vote by the Michigan State Board of Canvassers was 3-0, after one of the two Republican members, Aaron Van Langevelde, joined Democrats in voting to certify. The other Republican chose not to vote.
Before the meeting, Michigan’s secretary of state announced that “All 83 counties … have certified their results,” including the the vote in Wayne County (Detroit) that was contested by the Trump campaign, reported ABC News.
“The certification is another blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results through legal challenges that have been dismissed in key states and attempts to delay certifications,” says CNN.
Also on Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed a Biden loss in one county, solidifying the Democratic victory there.
In Michigan, the Trump campaign had tried to interfere with the state’s certification process, CNN said, adding that “Trump … and [his] attorney Rudy Giuliani continue to claim without evidence widespread voter fraud and a ‘rigged’ election.”
Biden piled up a more than 154,000-vote margin of victory in Michigan. That’s almost 15 times Trump’s winning margin in 2016, and far more than could conceivably be tossed out by the president’s campaign challenges.
“Trump’s efforts to stave off the inevitable — formal recognition of his defeat — faced increasingly stiff resistance from the courts and fellow Republicans,” just 3 weeks before the Electoral College meets to confirm Biden’s victory, reported the Associated Press.
The certification process is “moving forward,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told CBS News, and “our 16 electoral votes will be awarded to Joe Biden because he by far won the most votes in our state.”
