Trump campaign targets vote certification in bid to block Biden

Two GOP members in Michigan backtracked from their initial approval to the election outcome

Getting nowhere in the courts, President Donald Trump’s scattershot effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory is shifting toward obscure election boards that certify the vote as Mr. Trump and his allies seek to upend the electoral process, sow chaos and perpetuate unsubstantiated doubts about the count.

The battle is centred in the battleground States that sealed Mr. Biden’s win.

In Michigan, two Republican election officials in the State’s largest county initially refused to certify results despite no evidence of fraud, then backtracked and voted to certify and then on Wednesday flipped again and said they “remain opposed to certification.” Some Republicans have called on the GOP statewide canvassers to do the same. In Arizona, officials are balking at signing off on vote tallies in a rural county.

The moves don’t reflect a coordinated effort across the battleground States that broke for Mr. Biden, local election officials said. Instead, they seem to be inspired by Mr. Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about baseless fraud and driven by Republican acquiescence to broadsides against the nation’s electoral system as State and federal courts push aside legal challenges filed by Mr. Trump and his allies.

‘No precedent’

Still, what happened in Wayne County, Michigan, on Tuesday and Wednesday was a jarring reminder of the disruptions that can still be caused as the nation works through the process of affirming the outcome of the November 3 election.

There is no precedent for the Trump team’s widespread effort to delay or undermine certification, according to University of Kentucky law professor Joshua Douglas.

“It would be the end of democracy as we know it,” Mr. Douglas said. “This is just not a thing that can happen.”

Certifying results is a routine yet important step after local election officials have tallied votes, reviewed procedures, checked to ensure votes were counted correctly and investigated discrepancies. Typically, this certification is done by a local board of elections and then, later, the results are certified at the state level.

But as Mr. Trump has refused to concede to Mr. Biden and continues to spread false claims of victory, this mundane process is taking on new significance.

Among key battleground States, counties in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin have all made it through the initial step of certifying results. Except for Wayne County, this process has largely been smooth. Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia still haven’t concluded their local certifications.

Then all eyes turn to Statewide certification.

In Wayne County, the two Republican canvassers at first balked at certifying the vote, winning praise from Mr. Trump, and then reversed course after widespread condemnation. A person familiar with the matter said Mr. Trump reached out to the canvassers, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, on Tuesday evening after the revised vote to express gratitude for their support. Then, on Wednesday, Ms. Palmer and Mr. Hartmann signed affidavits saying they believe the county vote “should not be certified.”

Time is running short for Mr. Trump. Across the nation, recounts and court challenges must wrap up and election results must be certified by December 8. That’s the constitutional deadline ahead of the Electoral College meeting the following week.

Matt Morgan, the Trump campaign’s general counsel, said last week the campaign was trying to halt certification in battleground states until it could get a better handle on vote tallies and whether it would have the right to automatic recounts. Right now, Trump is requesting a recount in Wisconsin in two counties, and Georgia is doing an hand audit after Mr. Biden led by a slim margin of 0.3 percentage points, but there is no mandatory recount law in the State.

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