Michigan’s Wayne County Certifies Election Results After Brief GOP Refusal

Election workers count absentee ballots earlier this month in Detroit, the county seat of Wayne County, Michigan. The county’s board of canvassers initially failed to certify its election results after the board’s two Republican members voted against certification. They quickly reversed course under public pressure.

Jeff Kowalsky / AFP via Getty Images

Updated at 11:36 a.m. ET

Officials in Michigan’s most populous county reversed course and certified its election results Tuesday evening, just a few hours after a surprising party-line deadlock suddenly cast the certification of more than 800,000 votes in doubt. Wayne County voted overwhelmingly for President-elect Joe Biden.

The two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers — a bipartisan foursome tasked with approving the results from a heavily populated swath of Michigan that includes Detroit — initially blocked the move to certify the votes, asserting discrepancies with the poll books in certain Detroit precincts.