Michigan canvassers nearly blocked 2020 votes. Could it happen again?

• Four years after canvassers nearly blocked vote certification, Michigan has new rules in place designed to prevent meddling this year
• Nearly a dozen county canvassers tasked with certifying Nov. 5 results have openly questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 contest
• State officials warn that canvassers who fail to certify the election could face misdemeanor criminal charges

LANSING — One pushed to "decertify" the 2020 election. Others said it was "most definitely stolen" and compared the contest to murder. 

Now, they're among the partisans who will be responsible for canvassing and certifying this year’s votes in Michigan's 83 counties following the Nov. 5 election. 

But four years after Donald Trump pressured some county canvassers to block certification of his 2020 loss, officials say they're mostly confident that new Michigan rules would prevent canvassers from rejecting votes this fall.

An amendment to the Michigan Constitution approved by Michigan voters in 2022 made clear that county canvassers have "non-discretionary duty” to certify results tabulated by local election officials from both major political parties. And state laws include potential criminal penalties for those who won’t.

"If somebody doesn’t do their duty as a canvasser, at the state level or on the county level, they can be removed from office and, ultimately, prosecuted,” said Ahogho Edevbie, Deputy Secretary of State under Democrat Jocelyn Benson.

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Benson has been even more blunt, warning canvassers who refuse to certify the election that “we’ll get you.” It’s about “protecting the will of the people” and ensuring their votes are counted, she said earlier this fall. 

Michigan's election system entrusts four canvassers in each county — two Democrats and two Republicans — to certify local election results. Then, members of the bipartisan board of state canvassers do the same, a key step in awarding the state’s 15 Electoral College votes to the winning candidate. 

Trump in 2020 reportedly pressured Republican canvassers in Wayne County, who attempted to rescind their certification the next day. His allies urged state canvassers to block the final vote tally, which one GOP appointee refused to do. 

Pro-democracy groups wary of a similar scenario unfolding this year have spent months researching past comments by newly appointed and returning canvassers to gauge their potential willingness to block certification. 

There are nearly a dozen county canvassers — all Republican appointees — who have expressed at least some level of doubt about the accuracy of Michigan's 2020 presidential election results, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Wisconsin. 

Those canvassers are now in positions responsible for certifying Michigan’s 2024 presidential election results, and that leaves some observers nervous, including former US Rep. Dave Trott. 

“Some of the deniers and the folks that believe the election was stolen in 2020 have had four years to plot and scheme to challenge the election if it doesn’t turn out the way they want,” said Trott, a Republican who represented portions of metro Detroit in Congress from 2015 through 2019.

A partisan process

Wayne County — home to Detroit and the largest number of registered voters in the state — could again be key to certifying election results in November. 

There, GOP canvassers Robert Boyd and Katherine Riley have openly expressed doubts about the 2020 election results.

Boyd previously said he believed Michigan’s 2020 presidential election results “were inaccurate,” as he was told that “by people who knew what went on” in Wayne County. 

Riley, meanwhile, has led election integrity training sessions on behalf of a nonprofit which has pushed for “full 100% forensic audits of fraudulent elections” and subsequent decertification of those election results.

Neither responded to multiple requests for comment by Bridge Michigan.

Speaking as part of a non-partisan panel on civic education last week, Trott alluded to issues on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers in 2020 as reason for his concern. 

This time around, Trott fears some county canvassers, “are going to not only do it again” but have had ample time “to learn how to do a better job of creating problems.”

Despite new laws designed to smooth the election certification process, two canvassers in the Upper Peninsula considered blocking local recall election results in May. They ultimately voted to certify — but only after a top state elections official warned them they could face misdemeanor charges.

In August, Kalamazoo County Canvasser Robert Froman — who had claimed the 2020 election was "most definitely" stolen from Trump — told The Detroit News he would refuse to certify this year's results if he thought there was fraud. 

The ACLU of Michigan responded by pro-actively suing Froman, who soon after signed an affidavit pledging to carry out his legal duty as a canvasser in certifying Kalamazoo County’s presidential election results.

Bridge attempted to reach out to Froman last week but was told by an employee in the Kalamazoo County Clerk’s Office that Froman was no longer speaking to reporters about the election.

At least three county canvassers who questioned 2020 results have since stepped down from their positions to run for other offices, including Marvin Rubingh, who is running for a spot on the Banks Township Board of Trustees.

“We want to trust the system, but then verify,” said Rubingh, a former member of the Antrim County Board of Canvassers.

Certifying this year's results should have "nothing to do with who wins and doesn’t,” he said, but rather “are the voters legitimate voters? Are the numbers adding up? Is the election held properly?”

Guardrails in place

County canvassers have a few basic duties. They review vote totals from all county precincts to ensure their consistency, report those findings to the Board of State Canvassers and manage any recounts that may occur.

While the new laws have not been tested in a presidential contest before, some observers predict they will effectively prevent canvassers from delaying certification of the Nov. 5 election. 

“It is their legal duty to provide these election results,” said Quentin Turner, Michigan executive director of the democracy watchdog group Common Cause. “If they don’t, if they fail to do that, then the state can actually take over the canvass of the election.”

Following a 2022 ballot initiative, the Michigan Constitution now explicitly states that members of a canvassing board have a “nondiscretionary duty … to certify election results” based on voting information they receive from precincts and absent voter counting boards within their county. 

That same requirement was also codified into state law earlier this year as part of a package that expanded voter registration, criminalized poll worker intimidation and regulated political ads that use artificial intelligence.

Attorney General Dana Nessel has warned canvassers that "willful neglect of your duties is a criminal act" — a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year behind bars. 

State Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, said the law makes clear a canvasser does not have the ability “to certify or not certify based on the candidate you wanted to, or wished, would win.”

“It is not the duty of the board of canvassers to self-deputize as a policing agency or an investigative agency,” said Moss, who sponsored legislation requiring county canvassers to fulfill their duties within a 14-day window following an election.

“They’re not resourced to do that,” he added, “and they’re not charged to do that by law.”

Legislative Republicans uniformly voted against the election law changes. 

Spending so much time focused on the possibility of misconduct is concerning as well, said state Sen. Ed McBroom, a Waucedah Township Republican who led an investigation of the 2020 election that found no evidence of widespread fraud.

Cracking down on canvassers asking questions about the state’s election processes doesn’t increase public trust in the system or process, McBroom told Bridge. 

“If they have questions, they shouldn’t  just be brushed off … People want to ask questions,” McBroom added. “They deserve to have them taken seriously and be given answers.”

What happens if canvassers refuse?

If county canvassers refuse to certify, the new law requires them to turn over records and information to state canvassers, who would then need to “meet immediately and make the necessary determinations” on whether to sign off on a county’s election results.

That decision could come as late as 20 days after an election, and would require both the challenging county canvassers and “all other county staff necessary to complete the canvass” be present at all times throughout the process.

On top of that, the county from which canvassers declined to certify would need to pay for the whole process. That means travel, lodging, meals and any other costs the state incurs in the process.

If the Board of State Canvassers fails to certify, the Michigan Supreme Court can “step in and order them to,” said Edevbie, Michigan’s Deputy Secretary of State.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would also have authority to remove canvassers from board positions and replace them, said Mark Brewer, an attorney and former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. 

Democrats have lawyers on standby waiting to take canvassers to court if they fail to certify the election, Brewer said, but he hopes it doesn’t come to that. “There’s a lot of other steps that can and should be taken” first.

Following the law would ultimately result in a faster decision on whether to canvass a county’s election results — at least, more so than dragging the matter to court, according to Brewer. 

“There’s been a lot of work put into having good canvass hygiene in Michigan up to this point,” added Canton Township Clerk Michael Seigrist, who noted the laws were put to the test in May when the Delta County Board of Canvassers deadlocked on certifying the county’s May 7 election results.

Two of the canvassers, Republicans Bonnie Hakkola and LeeAnne Oman, initially said they would not certify the contest until a hand-recount of the election occurred, believing three county commission recall elections results had too similar of margins to be coincidental.

Faced with warnings of potential criminal charges, they later voted to certify and resigned from their posts not long after the vote, with Hakkola saying she was “being coerced” into signing off on the election results.

McBroom, the Waucedah Township Republican, said he was “heavily involved” with the ordeal because his district includes the county and he is involved in local party politics.  

“They didn’t know ahead of time” how canvassing worked procedurally, McBroom said, “and we’ve got to take it more seriously, both parties, and make sure that the people who are taking on these jobs understand … what all is going to be entailed in that job and how it works.”

He suggested more canvasser training sessions, led by the political parties, so that “we can help people understand what their job is … but also treat their questions sincerely.”

“It would avoid a lot of this distrust that’s cropping up all over the place,” McBroom added.