LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A local Republican election official in Michigan has vowed to certify the results of November’s presidential election after being sued for saying he would not 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 member Robert Froman as saying he believed the 2020 election was “really” stolen and that he would not accept the results of the upcoming November presidential election , if a similar situation were to occur this year. In a sworn affidavit signed Monday, Froman agreed to confirm the results of the 2024 election based solely on the returns and that he “would not refuse to confirm the election results based on information not included in the returns.”
There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and a detailed review by Michigan Senate Republican lawmakers confirmed this, concluding that Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump. The report also urged the state’s minister of justice to investigate those who made unfounded claims about the results.
Biden won Kalamazoo County by nearly 20 percentage points four years ago and beat Trump in Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes.
Froman’s remarks added to growing concerns around the country, particularly in the president’s battleground states, that Trump-supporting cabinet members will refuse to certify the results if the former president loses narrowly, leading to chaos and court intervention.
“Michigan law clearly states that county governments have a departmental duty to approve officer voting and procedures. After that, 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 provided a signed statement.
Trump and his allies began targeting election boards to block certification in 2020. He pressed two Republicans on the Wayne County Board of Elections and two more on the Michigan State Board of Elections, which momentarily hesitated to certify the results before one relented and cast the deciding vote. Trump touted the delay as part of his efforts to reverse his loss, one tactic in a multi-pronged effort to sway the election results that culminated in a violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
A Michigan law passed in 2023 makes clear that representatives of the people have a “ministerial, clerical and discretionary duty” to confirm election results based on election results alone.
However, some Republican officials have tried to take matters into their own hands. In May, in the state’s Upper Peninsula, two Republican members of the county board of inquiry refused to sign off on election results that led to the recall of three GOP members of the county committee. They finally relented after receiving a letter from the state’s director of elections, Jonathan Brater, reminding them of their responsibilities and warning them of the consequences of failing to certify.
