Michigan Republicans who tried to cast electoral votes for President Donald Trump have virtually no chance of overturning his loss.
Attorney Ian Northon, special counsel for The Amistad Project of the conservative Thomas More Society, was with a group of Republican state lawmakers that failed to escort 16 GOP electors into the Michigan Capitol building Monday. Electors of president and vice-president are required by state law to convene in the Senate chamber at 2 p.m. on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following their election.
Northon said Republican electors sent alternative documents to Congress in case the state Legislature decides to replace Democratic electors. House Speaker Lee Chatfiled, R-Levering, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, said they have no interest in replacing electors after facing pressure from Trump supporters during the last month.
Michigan law requires electors to cast their vote for the candidate who received the largest number of votes. Electors from the losing parties have no reason to cast a ballot for their candidate, a spokesperson for the Michigan Secretary of State said.
Richard Friedman, a professor at the University of Michigan and constitutional law expert, called the attempt to cast electoral votes for Trump a political “stunt.” The Republican elector votes have no legal authority, he said.
“There’s nothing preventing any group of 16 people from getting together and saying ‘we’re electors,’ but it doesn’t have any legal force,” Friedman said. “My guess is that whatever mail 16 people choose to send in will not even see the light of day. But if it does, it would not have the same standing as the certificates of the governor.”
Republicans organized similar elector votes in several battleground states Biden won, including Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Each of the states sent votes cast by Democrat electors to Congress on Monday.
Stephen Miller, a senior adviser in the White House, appeared on Fox News to promote the so-called “alternate” electors on Monday morning. Videos of Republicans attempting to enter the Capitol spread via social media, elevated by conservative bloggers and Trump supporters.
Northon said the attempt to send two sets of electors is unprecedented in Michigan, but not across U.S. history.
He cited the 1961 election, when Hawaii’s Republican and Democratic slates of electors cast votes for president while awaiting the result of a recount. Hawaii first certified the electors of Richard Nixon, but that changed when the recount found John F. Kennedy had won the Hawaii vote.
There’s one key difference between the 1961 and 2020 elections: Trump did not request a recount.
The initial results in Hawaii found Nixon 141 votes ahead of Kennedy, and a recount put Kennedy ahead by 115 votes. Trump lost Michigan by 154,000 votes, according to certified results, a margin that
could not be overcome through a recount.
Northon provided a copy of the certificate of votes cast by Republican electors Monday. It includes the signatures of Kathy Berden, Hank Choate, Amy Facchinello, Clifford Frost, Stanley Grot, John Haggard, Mari-Ann Henry, Timothy King, Michele Lundgren, Meshawn Maddock, Marian Sheridan, James Renner, Marya Rodriguez, Rose Rook, Ken Thompson and Kent Vanderwood.
Republican electors Terri Lynn Land, the former Michigan Secretary of State, and Gerald Wall were replaced.
Northon said the electors met at the Michigan Republican Party headquarters in Lansing.
The Michigan Republican Party directed questions about the situation to the Trump campaign.
MLive attempted to contact several electors and lawmakers who escorted them, including state Reps. Matt Maddock, R-Milford Township, and Daire Rendon, R-Lake City, but messages were not returned Tuesday.