State Board of Canvassers vote 4-0 to certify midterm election results

LANSING, Mich. — Three weeks after 4.5 million Michiganders cast their election ballots, the State Board of Canvassers voted unanimously to certify the results of the 2022 midterm election.

“They’ve been certified. They’ve been sent to us. Our job is essentially to do the math to make sure that it all checks out and to certify, and that’s what we’ve done,” said BOC chairman Tony Daunt in an interview during lunch break. “There’s been nothing presented to us that calls those results into question. And, I’m confident with the vote that we had and the accuracy of the election.”

Monday’s unanimous vote marked the first time that's happened since 2020 when the board voted 3-1 on certifying that year’s presidential election.

Also, this year in late August, the board was deadlocked on the spacing of the words on the ballot proposals, which led to a 2-2 vote along party lines. The Michigan Supreme court later stepped in and stated that the proposals had to be on the ballots.

However, Daunt said this time the board was all of the same mindset.

“The simple fact of that matter is that frankly the margins weren’t close, No. 1. So, if there were, and I’m not saying there are, if there were issues here and there — like whole books being out of balance etc. — they’re not going to impact the outcome,” Daunt said. “The second piece is all of these county Board of Canvassers have looked at these. They get into the nitty gritty. They work with the clerk. They work with the staff to see 'do the poll books balance? What’s the explanation for this one not balancing?' And they have to have a bipartisan vote to move forward, and we received 83 of those. And, I’m confident that those people know what they’re doing.”

The BOC, which consists of two republicans and two democrats, met Monday morning at the Michigan Senate building in a room packed with supporters and naysayers, which grew contentious at times.

Several times, Daunt told the audience that “calling out” and shouting would not be allowed. At one point, he had to remove a man after his frequent outbursts.

“Not enjoyable,” Daunt said. “I didn’t set out to do that. But, I think I was pretty clear up front that we weren’t going to tolerate that kind of behavior. And I think you’ll notice that once that gentleman was removed it seemed to calm down quite a bit.”

When the man was escorted out by Lansing Police officers, several people in the room shouted their support for him. Others testified about their concerns over the election results, like former GOP Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo.

“Citizen canvass efforts have shown that there are thousands and thousands of registration across this state, registered at voting in vacant lots” Karamo said at the podium. “My question for the Secretary of State is how is someone registered to vote at a vacant lot?”

Karamo said she believed there was misconduct in the election.

However, Daunt and others on the board responded that their roles were ministerial, and that if anyone would like to challenge the election they can. The recount clock was set, thus allowing people to request a recount or file a lawsuit.

As for the board, they believe the election was fair, Daunt said.

“Elections are important,” Daunt said. “I have very strong disagreements with the people I just certified the election results for. I don’t think I voted for any of the people that won, frankly. But that’s not my job to impart my personal opinion. It’s to look at the results and what the people of Michigan said. And, I’m here to certify that.”