Local Republican official in Michigan promises to certify election results after being sued

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — 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.”

There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and a detailed review by Republican lawmakers in the Michigan Senate affirmed that, concluding that Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump. The report also urged the state attorney general to investigate those making baseless allegations about the results.

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Biden won Kalamazoo County by almost 20 percentage points four years ago and beat Trump in Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes.

Froman’s remarks contributed to growing concerns around the country, especially in presidential battleground states, that canvassing board members who support Trump will refuse to certify the results if the former president narrowly loses, a development that would lead to chaos and intervention by the courts.

“Michigan law clearly states that county boards of canvassers have a ministerial duty to sign off on clerks’ canvassing of votes and procedures. Then opportunities for audits and recounts follow,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wrote on social media Tuesday, praising the ACLU of Michigan for filing the lawsuit.

Froman did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The ACLU of Michigan agreed to drop the lawsuit after Froman submitted the signed statement.

Trump and his allies began targeting election boards to block certification in 2020. He pressured two Republicans on Wayne County’s canvassing board and two others on Michigan’s state board of canvassers, who briefly hesitated to certify the results before one relented and cast the decisive vote. Trump applauded the delay as part of his effort to overturn his loss, one tactic in a multipronged effort to subvert the election results that culminated in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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.