WASHINGTON - With his legal challenges to Democrat Joe Biden’s Nov. 3 presidential election victory foundering, President Donald Trump's campaign and his Republican allies have stepped up efforts to prevent local officials from certifying election results in key battleground states.
But the effort aimed at halting the ballot certification process, an obscure but critical part of electing the president, has failed thus far as judges have thrown out several lawsuits brought by the Republicans in recent days. The latest dismissal came in the state of Georgia on Thursday.
The lawsuits seeking to halt vote certification are part of the Trump campaign's broader strategy of goading Republican-controlled state legislatures in battleground states into awarding their electoral votes to the president, even though he lost both the popular and electoral vote to Biden, according to legal and political experts.
The presidential election is won by whichever candidate can amass a 270-vote majority or more in the 538-member Electoral College. That is determined by the popular vote showing in every state and the District of Columbia. Biden won the balloting in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes and appears to be headed to collecting 16 electoral votes in the state.
In a long-shot bid to undo Biden’s electoral victory in Michigan – and potentially in several other states — Trump met with the Republican leadership of the Michigan state legislature on Friday afternoon — presumably to explore ways to supersede the popular vote in choosing electors.
After the White House meeting Friday, the Michigan lawmakers issued a joint statement.
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“We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election,” they said.
“The candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan’s electoral votes,” they added.
Michigan Senate's Republican Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, who took part in the White House meeting, said earlier this week that the legislature will not award the state’s 16 electors to Trump, and experts say .
Trump has challenged the vote count in half a dozen battleground states he lost to Biden: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The six states are set to certify their results over the next 11 days, which started with Georgia on Friday.
Dec. 8 is a do-or-die deadline for all states to certify their electoral college results, followed by Dec. 14, when the electors gather in their respective states to cast their votes for the president-elect.
The United States has the most decentralized election administration system in developed countries, with each of the 50 states following its own system of tabulating votes and certifying results.
After the votes are cast, they’re first “canvassed” and then certified at the county or city level. Once they're certified by a county board, the results go to a state entity such as a canvassing board or commission for certification. Depending on the state, the winner of the race is ultimately certified by the secretary of state or governor.
“It is this certification that provides the needed authority for swearing in newly elected officeholders,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Once working in obscurity, canvassing boards have been thrust into the spotlight in recent days amid a deluge of Republican lawsuits seeking to stop them from certifying election results. In Michigan, the four-member Wayne County Canvassing Board on Tuesday approved the Nov. 3 election results but not before deadlocking along party lines. The Michigan State Canvassing Board is similarly divided along party lines.
Most states have certified or are in the process of certifying their results. In 33 states, including Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, counties must certify results within two weeks of an election.
In 13 others, including Arizona and Michigan, county boards must certify them within three weeks. The remaining four states, including California, give counties up to four weeks to issue certifications.
Depending on the state, state certification can take one or more days following certification by a county board.
Though a critical step in the process, state certification is a mere rubber-stamping formality when the election results are clear.