Michigan Canvass Board Republican: ‘Need Evidence’ to Delay Certification of Votes

Workers with the Detroit Department of Elections sort through absentee ballots at the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 2, 2020. Elaine Cromie/Getty Images

A Republican on the Michigan Board of Canvassers said he would vote to delay the certification of the state’s Electoral College votes if more information is provided.

“I can vote yes or no on certification and I could vote to delay certification,” said Norm Shinkle, who is one of two Republicans on the board, reported Newsmax. “But before I do that, I need the evidence [of problems in the vote-count] and I need it in 48 hours.”

Shinkle said he wants “to see” what President Donald Trump’s legal team has “in terms of hard evidence,” adding that he has “had a lot of questions about Dominion Voting Systems and about the role of the ‘Rock the Vote,’” a Democratic turnout organization.

A spokesman from Dominion told Fox News on Sunday that the firm didn’t “switch votes” from Trump to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. “There is no way such a massive fraud could have taken place,” Michael Steel said. “And there are no connections between our company and Venezuela, Germany, Barcelona,” or elsewhere. Steel said that the electronic vote can be audited via a paper trail.

Over the weekend, Trump attorney Sidney Powell promised the team would file a lawsuit of “biblical” proportions. “We’ve got tons of evidence; it’s so much, it’s hard to pull it all together,” Powell told Newsmax.

“Hopefully this week we will get it ready to file, and it will be biblical,” Powell said. “It’s a massive project to pull this fraud claim together with the evidence that I want to put in.”

Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell speaks to media while flanked by Trump lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (L) and Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis at a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on Nov 19, 2020. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Detroit election workers work on counting absentee ballots for the 2020 general election at TCF Center in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 4, 2020. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

Electoral College votes in Michigan are certified by the Board of Canvassers. State House Republican Caucus attorney Aaron Van Langevelde is the other Republican on the bipartisan agency.

Jeannette Bradshaw, the recording secretary of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58, and Macomb County Commissioner Julie Matuzak, the former political director of the American Federation of Teachers, are the two Democrats on the board.

The Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party recently called on the Board of State Canvassers to adjourn for two weeks to investigate alleged irregularities.

“To simply gloss over these irregularities now without a thorough audit would only foster feelings of distrust among Michigan’s electorate,” said a letter from GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox to the board.

“In light of the already unprecedented nature of this election—conducted largely by mail in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, it would be a grievous dereliction of this board’s duty to the people of Michigan not to ensure that the irregularities identified by the James campaign are thoroughly investigated by a full audit before certifying Wayne County’s results,” Cox and McDaniel wrote, referring to GOP Senate candidate John James.