A local Republican election official in Michigan has promised to certify the results of the November presidential election after being sued for stating that he wouldn’t sign off on the results if he disagreed with how the election was run.
The lawsuit, filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, came after a Detroit News article quoted Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers member Robert Froman saying he believed the 2020 election was “most definitely” stolen and that he wouldn’t certify the upcoming November presidential results if a similar situation occurred this year. In a sworn affidavit signed Monday, Froman agreed to certify the results of the 2024 election based solely on vote returns and that he would not “refuse to certify election results based on information extrinsic to the statements of return.”…
A Michigan law passed in 2023 makes clear that canvassers have a “ministerial, clerical, and nondiscretionary duty” to certify election results based solely on the election returns.
Still, some Republican officials have attempted to take matters in their own hands. In May, two Republican members of a county canvassing board in the state’s Upper Peninsula refused to sign off on the results of an election that led to the recall of three GOP members of the county commission. They eventually relented after receiving a letter from state Elections Director Jonathan Brater, which reminded them of their duties and warned them of the consequences of failing to certify.