Some Democrats in Washington are refusing to commit to certifying the 2024 election if former President Donald Trump prevails over Vice President Kamala Harris.
In Michigan, a key battleground state where the candidates are currently deadlocked, the state’s top election official, Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, is vowing to “come for” local officials who do the same if the election goes the other way.
“The law is quite clear, these officials have one ministerial duty: to certify our elections. Then it goes up to the state level and then they certify at the state level,” Benson said in an August YouTube video.
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“So, all that to say if someone were to violate the law and not certify the election at the local level, we will come for you,” Benson threatened, staring ominously at the camera.
In Congress, where Democrats have criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for equivocating on whether Republicans would certify a Harris win, some members of Benson’s Democratic Party won’t commit to making a Trump win official.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, told Axios if Trump “won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it,” though Raskin said he’s “definitely” skeptical the 45th POTUS is running a fair and honest campaign.
Raskin claims Trump “is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments.”
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It was a similar response from Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Democrats’ senior chief deputy whip.
“I don’t know what kind of shenanigans he is planning,” Shakowsky told Axios. “We would have to, in any election … make sure that all the rules have been followed.”
House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern, D-Mass. told the news site he expects Democrats to certify the 2024 election results “assuming everything goes the way we expect it to.”
“We have to see how it all happens,” he said.
Top Democrats in the House, meanwhile, are saying something else.
Both Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, and his top election deputy Rep. Joe Morelle, D-NY, have said Democrats will follow through if Trump wins.
“House Democrats are going to do everything necessary to … ensure that the winner of the presidential election is certified on January 6th without drama or consequences,” Jefferies said in September.
Axios notes Democrats challenged Republican wins in 2005 and 2017, while Republicans objected to Biden wins in Arizona and Pennsylvania in 2021.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, former chair of the House’s Jan. 6 Committee, argued there’s “enough provisions in law … so that losers who feel aggrieved in their loss can take it to court,” predicting Democrats will settle any election issues before they reach Congress.
In Michigan, the litigation has already begun, with numerous lawsuits filed against Benson from state and national Republican Parties, as well as more than 130 residents, that argue the secretary of state is tilting the election toward Democrats.
More than seven different courts have determined that election guidance issued by Benson’s office violates Michigan law. Those cases have centered on everything from carrying firearms at polls, to “presumed validity” of absentee voter signatures, to limits on poll challengers.
In late August, the Michigan Court of Claims found Benson “misapplied the law” when she disqualified independent progressive presidential candidate Cornel West from the Michigan ballot, a move that political observers believe was aimed at protecting Harris.
Last month, Benson was forced to issue new election guidance in response to an RNC lawsuit that alleged she failed to properly enforce absentee ballot verification laws.
On Oct. 3, Michigan Judge Brock Swartzle required Benson to clarify incomplete election guidance regarding the processing of mail-in ballots without stub number or ballot matching numbers.
Other lawsuits target Benson’s refusal to purge the state’s bloated voter rolls, which are currently at 105% of the voting age population, Democrat poll workers out numbering Republicans in Detroit 7-to-1, and Benson’s arrangement with the Biden-Harris administration to utilize Small Business Administration and Veterans Affairs sites in Democratic areas for voter registration efforts.
Still others question Benson’s efforts to implement a ban on local officials investigating fraud during recounts for 2024, despite the new law’s effective date in 2025.