U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be taking his effort to overturn his election loss to legislators in a battleground state.
The New York Times reported Thursday afternoon that Trump has invited Republican lawmakers from Michigan to the White House on Friday for a meeting, in what some legal observers believe is an effort to sidestep the Electoral College after his loss earlier this month to President-Elect Joe Biden.
The newspaper reported that Trump invited Mike Shirkey, the Michigan Senate's majority leader. It is not known how many Republican legislators may head to Washington if any at all.
This is the latest in an effort by the Trump campaign to get election results overturned in Michigan, a state he won by over 11,000 votes in 2016 but lost this time around to Biden. Multiple lawsuits have been filed in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada, arguing unsubstantiated claims by the president's camp that widespread election fraud cost him a second term. Most of these cases have been thrown out of various courts.
The Times and WXYZ-TV also cited reports that Trump personally contacted the Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, whose job it was to certify the election counts in that county. The two Republican members of the bipartisan board had initially refused to certify the results but relented after widespread criticism.
After the votes were certified, the two Republican members filed affidavits to rescind their decision to certify, but a spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told The Times that it was not legally permissible to do so.
Wayne County is the most populous in the Wolverine State, and it includes Detroit, which voted overwhelmingly for Biden.
The Michigan state canvassing board is now charged with certifying the state's votes. This process must be completed before Democratic electors can be chosen to actually cast the votes for Biden, who won the state by less than 158,000 votes.
