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11/24 Daily Update: Moving Forward Together

Published: 11.24.20

A bustling Tuesday! Today, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada, and Massachusetts certified election results in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, while North Carolina certified results for President Donald Trump. A partial recount underway in Wisconsin is on track to conclude by the state’s 12/1 certification deadline. Following Pennsylvania’s certification of results, the Voter Protection Program held a press briefing to inform reporters’ coverage. Read more in Forbes and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

In case you missed it—the VPP released an ad urging the Trump campaign and all leaders to respect the will of Michigan voters. The ad will run in Michigan for the next week.

Messaging guidance on states’ election certification process is included below. Here’s your update:

National Updates

Pennsylvania: Late last night, all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties certified their results. This morning, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar certified the statewide result and Governor Tom Wolf tweeted that he “signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris” as required by law. The final vote total showed Biden ahead of Trump by 80,555 in the Commonwealth.

Nevada: Appearing before the Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske certified Nevada’s 2020 general election results, officially assigning the state’s six electors to President-elect Biden.

Michigan: Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson shared a powerful image on Twitter today of the two of them signing Certificates of Ascertainment and affixing the Great Seal of the State of Michigan, designating Michigan’s 16 electors for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris.

State Updates

Meaningful and important things happened today to move this country toward a peaceful transition of power: Minnesota and Nevada certified their election results, and Michigan and Pennsylvania announced that their respective governors had signed official ascertainments appointing electors for Joe Biden. The Trump campaign responded to these meaningful and positive developments with new distractions cloaked as lawsuits:

Minnesota Nice? A group of Republican activists and failed candidates filed suit to stop Minnesota from certifying its 10 electors for President-elect Biden, who won the state by more than 233,000 votes and 7 percentage points. The case is Kistner v. Simon , No. — (Minn.). Filed directly with the state Supreme Court, the suit: suggests that illegal votes were cast but fails to identify a single illegal voter; challenges voting rules that were public and should have been challenged before more than 3 million people went to the polls; and impugns an entire election system behind a handful of claims about suboptimal conditions of observation.

Here’s the real news: The state certified its results today.

Please, Sir, Can I Have Some More: Lawyers from the Thomas More Society, unsatisfied with the losses they sustained in pre-Election Day litigation, have filed a petition seeking to block certification of Wisconsin’s presidential election results. Joe Biden won Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes, and the heavily Democratic Dane and Milwaukee counties are now pushing through a Trump-requested recount ahead of the state’s 12/1 certification deadline. But the suit, filed directly with Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, suggests the state’s election was compromised by a massive conspiracy funded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who donated millions of dollars to Wisconsin cities (along with many other cities across the country) to support COVID-era election administration. Coherence and sanity aside, the problem is that these same lawyers repeatedly tried to litigate this issue before the election, with absolutely no success. See Wisconsin Voters Alliance v. City of Racine, No. 20-cv-01487 (E.D. Wis.) (denying relief and characterizing the plaintiffs’ arguments as “at most a policy argument for prohibiting municipalities from accepting funds from private parties to help pay the increased costs of conducting safe and efficient elections.”). The case at the Wisconsin Supreme Court is Wisconsin Voter Alliance v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, No. —- (Wisc.).

Legal Corner

  • We are grateful for the state and local officials and poll workers across the country who made sure this year’s election was free, fair, and accurate, and the voters who turned out in record numbers.
  • The outcome of the election is crystal clear: voters chose Joe Biden as their next president, and as states continue to certify the election results, we get closer to the peaceful transition our country needs at this challenging time.
  • The will of the American people has been heard and upheld.
  • There is much that divides us in this country, but as today’s certifications in key states so clearly demonstrates, what unites all of us is a shared commitment to our democracy.
  • It’s time to move forward, together.

Messaging Guidance on Moving Forward Together

  • We are grateful for the state and local officials and poll workers across the country who made sure this year’s election was free, fair, and accurate, and the voters who turned out in record numbers.
  • The outcome of the election is crystal clear: voters chose Joe Biden as their next president, and as states continue to certify the election results, we get closer to the peaceful transition our country needs at this challenging time.
  • The will of the American people has been heard and upheld.
  • There is much that divides us in this country, but as today’s certifications in key states so clearly demonstrates, what unites all of us is a shared commitment to our democracy.
  • It’s time to move forward, together.

Key Vote Counting Deadlines in Battleground States

As a rule, a state’s election results are complete after all counties finish their counts and state-level officials formally certify the statewide results. The official counting process is sometimes called a “canvass,” and the official who is responsible for finalizing the results varies by state. States will try to complete their counts this year before December 8, with electors set to meet and vote for president on December 14.

So far, among key states contested by President Donald Trump in the post-Election Day period, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, and Pennsylvania have certified their electors for President-elect Biden. In Georgia, a statewide machine recount is underway and set to be completed next week. Still outstanding:

Arizona

  • 11/30: The Secretary of State is scheduled to canvass returns and complete the statewide count. The state is on track to meet that deadline, since all counties have completed their counting and certified the results.

Wisconsin

  • 12/1: Last day for the chairperson of the Wisconsin Elections Commission to certify results.
  • The ongoing recount in Dane and Milwaukee counties is set to be completed in advance of that deadline. Today, almost 400 additional, uncounted votes were found during that recount. Read more here.

Social Media

Follow the Voter Protection Program onTwitter to stay updated on the latest voter protection news. Check out our new ad in Michigan and give it a retweet!