November 4, 2020

Michigan’s Secretary of State Promises Results Within a Day

Biden’s campaign says its lead in the state leaves him “on track for a win.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.NS via ZUMA Wire

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The state of Michigan has about 100,000 votes left to count, with those results expected within 24 hours, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said during a Wednesday morning briefing.

As of 11:25 a.m., the state’s published vote counts showed former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of President Donald Trump by a little more than 33,000 votes. Trump won Michigan in 2016 by 10,704 votes.

In an early-morning speech from the White House, Trump falsely claimed he’d won the election, and said that “we want all voting to stop.” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager, fired back on Wednesday morning, saying that “Joe Biden is on track to win this election, and he will be the next president of the United States,” citing apparent leads in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada.

Bob Bauer, Biden’s lead election lawyer, assailed Republican state legislatures in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, for a purposeful effort to aid Trump by blocking the pre-Election Day counting of ballots: “They were looking to log-jam that process,” he said “And they did that with the precise effort to set up the claim that the president was making yesterday.” Proposals for the ability to process and count mail ballots at least a week before election day, in order to prevent confusion and a window for disinformation much like we’re seeing right now, were shot down by Michigan Republicans. A Republican proposal to allow for 10 hours of pre-processing, but not counting, was all that was eventually adopted.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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