Detroit-area county certifies vote after first blocking it
Michigan’s largest county reversed course and unanimously certified its presidential election results Tuesday night after Republicans first blocked the move in a party-line vote that threatened to temporarily stall official approval of Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the state. The Wayne County Board of Canvassers acted after the 2-2 tie was condemned by Democrats and election experts as a dangerous attempt to overthrow the will of voters. The board met after days of unsuccessful litigation filed by Republican poll challengers and President Donald Trump’s allies. They claimed fraud during absentee ballot counting at a Detroit convention center, but two judges found no evidence and refused to stop the canvassing process. Biden crushed Trump in Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold, by more than a 2-1 margin and won the state by 146,000 votes, according to unofficial results. The canvassers first rejected certification of the Detroit-area vote with a tie. Monica Palmer, a Republican on the board, said poll books in certain Detroit precincts were out of balance. In response, Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat, said it was “reckless and irresponsible” to not certify the results. “It’s not based upon fraud. It’s absolutely human error,” Kinloch said of any discrepancies. “Votes that are cast are tabulated.” The board then listened to a parade of spectators blasting Palmer and fellow Republican William Hartmann during the meeting’s public comment period over Zoom. The Rev. Wendell Anthony, a well-known pastor and head of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, called the Republican county canvassers a “disgrace.” “You have extracted a Black city out of a county and said the only ones that are at fault is the city of Detroit, where 80% of the people who reside here are African Americans. Shame on you!” Anthony said on Zoom, his voice rising during a public comment period. Certification of the Nov. 3 election results in each of Michigan’s 83 counties is a step toward statewide certification by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump fires agency head who vouched for 2020 vote security
President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired the director of the federal agency that vouched for the reliability of the 2020 election. Trump fired Christopher Krebs in a tweet, saying his recent statement defending the security of the election was “highly inaccurate.” While abrupt, the dismissal was hardly surprising. Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, had offered a stream of statements and tweets over the past week attesting to the integrity of the election, directly contradicting Trump’s false assertions of widespread fraud without mentioning the president by name. The firing of Krebs, a Trump appointee, comes as Trump is refusing to recognize the victory of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and removing high-level officials seen as insufficiently loyal. He fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Nov. 9, part of a broader shakeup that put Trump loyalists in senior Pentagon positions. A former Microsoft executive, Krebs ran the agency, known as CISA, from its creation in the wake of Russian interference with the 2016 election through the November election. He won bipartisan praise as CISA coordinated federal state and local efforts to defend electoral systems from foreign or domestic interference. Krebs has repeatedly pushed back against false claims that the election was tainted. Earlier Tuesday, he tweeted out a report citing 59 election security experts saying there is no credible evidence of computer fraud in the 2020 election outcome. Trump fired back on Twitter later in the day. He repeated unsubstantiated claims about the vote and wrote “effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.” Krebs, from his personal Twitter account, responded: “Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomorrow.” He closed with the phrase “Protect 2020,” which had been his agency’s slogan ahead of the election. Officials with CISA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, had no immediate comment. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House intelligence committee, assailed Trump for “retaliating against Director Krebs and other officials who did their duty. It’s pathetic but sadly predictable that upholding and protecting our democratic processes would be cause for firing.” Krebs kept a low profile even as he voiced confidence ahead of the November vote and, afterward, knocked down allegations that the count was tainted by fraud. The repudiation of Trump was notable coming from a component of DHS, which has been criticized for seeming to be too closely aligned with the president’s political goals. CISA issued statements dismissing claims that large numbers of dead people could vote or that someone could change results without detection. It also distributed a statement from a coalition of federal and state officials concluding there was no evidence that votes were compromised or altered in the Nov. 3 election and that the vote was the most secure in American history. Krebs avoided ever directly criticizing the president and tried to stay above the political fray, even as he worked to contradict misinformation coming from the president and his supporters. “It’s not our job to fact check the president,” he said at a briefing with reporters on the eve of the election. CISA works with the state and local officials who run U.S. elections as well as private companies that supply voting equipment to address cybersecurity and other threats while monitoring balloting and tabulation from a control room at its headquarters near Washington. It also works with industry and utilities to protect the nation’s industrial base and power grid from threats. The agency enjoys a good reputation among its core constituency — the state and local election officials who rely on its advice and services at a time of near-constant cyberattack — as well as on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers recently proposed an increase of its annual budget of around $2 billion. His removal is a “disturbing sign for American government,” said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. “Chris Krebs has been an accessible, reliable partner for elections officials across the country, and across party lines, as we have fortified our cyber defenses since 2016,” Padilla said. “Our elections infrastructure has become stronger because of leaders like Chris Krebs and in spite of the actions and lies coming from the White House.” Amid recent reports that Krebs feared he might be fired, Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, had said he was concerned and sent a text to the director to ask him if he was OK. The response was, in effect, “for now,” the Mississippi Democrat said. “It’s a shame if someone with his talent is all of a sudden, muzzled,” Thompson said. “I have not seen a partisan bone in his body. He’s been a consummate professional.” Rep. Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat who focuses on cybersecurity issues, had called on his Republican colleagues to stand up for him before he could be removed from his post. “Chris Krebs and CISA have done so well under his leadership because he and his team have kept their heads down and done the job they were tasked with doing and not gotten caught up in partisan politics,” Langevin said. The agency emerged from rocky beginnings. Just before President Barack Obama left office, the U.S. designated election systems as critical national security infrastructure, like dams or power plants, as a result of the interference by Russia, which included the penetration of state elections systems as well as massive disinformation. Some state election officials and Republicans, suspicious of federal intrusion on their turf, were opposed to the designation. The National Association of Secretaries of State adopted a resolution in opposition to the move in February 2017. But the Trump administration supported the designation, and, eventually, skeptical state officials welcomed the assistance. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Steve Flowers: Turnout for presidential election shatters record in Alabama
On the morning of the momentous November 3 Presidential Election Day, I began my day on my hometown radio station, WTBF in Troy, which has been my tradition for election days for over 30 years. As the polls began to open around 7 a.m., we began getting calls that the people were lined up for almost a mile outside of the two most populous voting locations in Pike County. Then, I started getting texts that a good many of the Republican boxes in major North Alabama cities had people waiting in line for two to three hours in voting precincts in Jasper, Hamilton, Cullman and Huntsville. Folks in Talladega were showing up in droves driven by a local amendment. When I voted around 10 a.m., the voting officials informed me that more people had already voted in record breaking numbers. About that time, I was receiving texts from other South Alabama locales like Daphne and Fairhope in Baldwin County and Enterprise and Ozark in the Wiregrass that records were going out the window. In Dothan, where I had spoken the day before, people were calling to tell me that records were being shattered at the Westgate polling place, which is one of the largest Republican boxes in the state. When I went on the popular Mobile talk radio Jeff Poor Show at 10:30 a.m., Jeff said reports were coming in of an unbelievable turnout. During the noon hour, I traversed to Montgomery for Talk Radio and interviews with my Capitol City television home, the Alabama News Network CBS 8 and ABC 32. I saw the same thing happening. At St. James Methodist Church where most of Wynlakes votes there were two-hour long lines. At Woodland Methodist in Pike Road it was two to three, and at most of the Republican boxes in Elmore County, especially Millbrook and Wetumpka, there were three hour waits. As I headed on to Birmingham for my election night TV appearance the scene in Shelby and Jefferson Counties was more of the same, if not more pronounced. My daughter, who votes at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church said the line had been out the door and around the church all day with no parking. The two major voting locations of Hoover, the Finlay Center and Hoover Met, had lines that reached almost a mile. Around 6:00 p.m., while discussing the unprecedented turnout with Secretary of State John Merrill, who had joined me on CBS 42, we saw an unbelievable line out the street at the prestigious Church of the Highlands voting location in Tuscaloosa. The coup de gras was at around 9:30 p.m. a good two-and-a-half-hours after the polls had closed, our TV cameras showed a picture of Trussville City Hall where voters were still waiting in line to cast their ballot even though Trump and Tuberville had already been declared the winners by the Associated Press. Secretary of State John Merrill confirmed what I knew by that time, that indeed the state of Alabama had an unprecedented, unbelievable, amazing, record breaking turnout – 2.3 million Alabamians voted despite COVID which shattered any previous voting participation record. The driving force had to unquestionably be driven by a fervor to vote for President Donald J. Trump. The vote for President Trump was the largest for any candidate in the history of the state. Trump garnered an amazing 62.7% of the vote, which surpassed his 62% against Hillary Clinton. He provided immense coattails for Coach Tommy Tuberville who beat our-anomaly, liberal, two-year-tenured Democratic Senator Doug Jones by an amazing 60-to-40 shellacking. Tuberville is now Senator Tommy Tuberville. PSC President Twinkle Cavanaugh set a record in her reelection bid with almost 1.4 million votes. She gained the record by receiving the most votes for any candidate in a contested race outside the Presidency in state history. Tuberville set the record for most votes for any senatorial candidate in state history. He trounced Jones by over 20 points despite being outspent 4-to-1. According to unofficial election night results the top Alabama Counties for Trump were Winston 90.3%, Cleburne 89.7%, Blount 89.6%, Marion 88.4% and Cullman 88.2%. They were the brightest red in the ruby red Heart of Dixie. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column is in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Alabama adding 2,000 virus cases daily as hospitals fill
More than 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 have been added daily over the last week across Alabama as hospitals treat more and more people suffering from the illness caused by the new coronavirus. With caseloads on a steady rise since Nov. 8, the rolling seven-date average of new cases reached 2,040 on Tuesday, a slight improvement from a day earlier, statistics showed. Virus-related illness is at its highest point in the state since August. The pace of deaths has increased since late October as the state’s death toll rose above 3,300 people, and nearly 1,300 people are hospitalized, the most in three months. With a statewide mask order already in place through Dec. 11 but occupancy limits dropped in order to help the economy, the Business Council of Alabama announced it was starting a campaign to oppose a shutdown similar to what happened in the spring. “BCA encourages Alabamians to follow all health guidelines and orders. COVID-19 poses a serious health threat to our citizens and communities. Personal responsibility and buy-in is needed to Keep Alabama Open,” the organization said in a statement. Gov. Kay Ivey, who has repeatedly stressed personal responsibility in combatting the virus, has “absolutely no intentions to close businesses,” said spokeswoman Gina Maiola. “The governor appreciates this effort by the business community to partner with her as she works to make this a reality,” she said. While COVID-19 causes only mild or moderate symptoms in most people, it can be deadly for the elderly and people with other, serious health problems. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
