Wayne County, Michigan, GOP member of canvassing board calls to ‘save’ his votes to certify election

In the affidavits signed Wednesday evening, two GOP members of the four-member Wayne County board of Canvasers alleged they were improperly pressured to certify the election and on Detroit’s promise to audit votes in Detroit Accused Democrats.

“I miss my prior vote,” board chair Monica Palmer wrote in an affidavit reviewed by the Washington Post. “I fully believe the Wayne County vote should not be certified.”

According to a person familiar with the document, William Republic, the second Republican on the board, has signed a similar affidavit. Hartman did not respond to a message from The Post.

Jonathan Kiloch, a Democrat and vice chairman of the board, told The Post that the pair were too late to reverse course, as certified results had already been sent to the secretary of state according to state regulations. He rapped Republicans over his requests.

“Do they understand how they are making us as one body?” he said. “We have such a wonderful and important role in the democratic process, and they are keeping it on their head.”

At the center of the dispute is a final agreement between Kinloch and Republicans to conduct a comprehensive audit of the results in the Detroit area, where GOP members said the votes were out of balance – that means the poll book, the official list poll, Does not match the number of ballots received.

Palmer and Hartmann stated in their affidavits that they believed they had a firm commitment to an audit. But Palmer said in his affidavit that Michigan State Secretary Jolison Benson (D) later said he did not see his resolution asking for an audit as binding.

Before signing the affidavit, Palmer told the Post on Wednesday, “I felt misled.” “I am determined not to certify Wayne County without an audit.”

However Kinloch stated that Palmer and Hartmann knew exactly what they agreed to and that the board has yet to formally ask Benson for an audit.

“She knew it was not binding,” Kinloch said. “We only voted yesterday.”

Kinloch said he and Palmer taught each other lessons early Wednesday, after Democrats explained that he had support across the board for the request. But he said Palmer was aware that he had not reached the office of the Secretary of State directly on Tuesday night.

He said the two also told the secretary of state the need to prepare a joint letter for the audit.

Hours before signing the affidavit, Palmer told The Post that his experience shook her Tuesday night. After the first vote against certifying the results, a parade of activists and election activists spoke to the board, questioning the results from the majority-black Detroit Prague, accusing Palmer and Hartman of racism, with many accusations.

“Last night was heartbreaking,” Palmer told The Post. “I sat in that chair for two hours when people attacked me” as a racist, attempting to dissuade Detective Residents. She said that her intentions were to the contrary – but her efforts were lost at sea that night, including death threats to her and her family.

Palmer said that he and Hartman had been concerned since the primary vote last summer that several predecessors were out of balance. She said she never believed that the reforms, which were made in certain prefixes, would change the vote totals in the county or state in a way that would increase the win for Biden, which led Michigan to nearly 150,000 votes .

“We were not delaying the inevitable,” Palmer said, referring to complaints that members of the GOP board were withholding from the president. Trump. “We always knew that the margin of victory was such that this outcome was not going to change.”

After he filed his affidavit to file his vote, Kinloch accused him and Hartman of pressuring the Republican Party and the White House, which have launched a legal campaign to reverse the election results.

Trump supporters have attacked Wednesday’s decision to ratify the Wayne County vote throughout the day, along with Republican National Committee President, Rona McDaniel, To describe it As a “crowd rule”.

In his interview with The Post, Palmer put it differently. “There was no crowd rule,” he said. There was pressure to prove, but she said she did not bow down. She only went ahead, she said, because of the promise of an audit.

Kinloch regretted the late attempt by Republicans to change their vote.

“They are playing with votes and people’s will,” Kinloch said.