Michigan Senate President Pro Tempore Calls For Election Audit

MICHIGAN — Senate Republicans in Michigan are calling for a full, independent audit of the state's election prior to election results being certified by the state's board of canvassers Nov. 23.

Michigan Senate President Pro Tempore Aric Nesbitt on Monday said he and other Senate Republicans are calling for the audit due to the number of allegations stemming from the absentee ballot counting process.

"We have seen a number of allegations that range from outright fraud, if true, to terrible mistakes that need to be corrected," Nesbitt said. "Citizens deserve to have faith in the integrity of the election process and its outcome. It is our responsibility, as elected public servants, to assure the process’s integrity through transparency and the investigation of allegations of wrongdoing. Every legal vote must count."

In a letter to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nesbitt cited ballot counting issues in Antrim County, where an error caused thousands of ballots to be counted incorrectly for the wrong candidates.

While the issue was discovered and corrected, Nesbitt said it is unclear if the same issue was replicated elsewhere.

Antrim County used Dominion Voting Systems to process its ballots, and that voting system has recently been called into question by President Donald Trump, who lost to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in Michigan, according to unofficial election results.

Dominion Voting Systems said in a statement to The Associated Press that it “denies claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems.”

A broad coaltion of top government and industry officials also declared that the Nov. 3 election was "the most secure in American history," sans for the usual minor hiccups.

“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised," the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement Thursday.

There have been only a “small handful” of issues that were the result of human error involving voting technology, not the software itself, said Eddie Perez, a voting technology expert at the OSET Institute, a nonpartisan election technology research and development nonprofit.

The OSET Institute has helped monitor more than 1,000 reports of voting issues throughout the U.S. since Election Day, according to The Associated Press.

The calls for an audit is the latest move by Michigan Republicans who question the validity of Nov. 3 election results. There also have been bevvy of lawsuits filed throughout Michigan courts seeking to stop the counting of ballots or calling for an audit of election results, all of which have been thrown out due to a lack of evidence.

Read More: Trump Campaign Files Lawsuit To Halt Ballot Counting In Michigan

Other lawsuits that had never reached a formal court hearing were withdrawn Monday without explanation, according to The Detroit Free Press.

Information and reporting from The Associated Press contributed to this report.