A viral clip showed a Michigan-based entrepreneur firing back at the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers who first voted against verifying the election results.
Read More: Michigan’s largest county reverses course, certifying election results for Biden
During a virtual meeting hosted on Zoom Ned Staebler on Tuesday, the chief executive of TechTown and a poll challenger in the city, countered William Hartmann and Monica Palmer‘s initial decision to vote against certifying Michigan votes, calling their motives racist. He did not hold back when confronting the Republican members who cited minor yet common issues as their reasoning.
He noted that the pair had no issue verifying the votes in suburban areas but not the votes from Detroit, a predominantly Black city. The board only consists of four members which resulted in a deadlock verdict.
Mark Brewer, an election law expert, shared with the New York Times the bias in the stance.
“Monica Palmer sat there and said she’s willing to approve the results of the lily-white city of Livonia, which had the second-highest number of out-of-balance precincts, but she won’t certify the city of Detroit,” Brewer said to the news outlet. “There is no reason to single out the city of Detroit for this racist treatment.”
A screen-recording, uploaded to social media by Twitter user @FirenzeMike, captured Staebler’s rant which echoed the same sentiments against the Republican resistance to certify votes.
“The Secretary of State and the Attorney General have already tweeted out that y our legal arguments are rubbish and you’re going to lose when it comes to court. We are not worried about that at all,” he remarked. “You talked about not certifying Detroit even though you acknowledge that Livonia, a city by the way I know you know is 95% white, had bigger variances than Detroit, which is 80%, Black.”
“I’m not going to try and change your mind, I’m just going to let you know. The Trump stain, the stain of racism that you, William Hartmann and Monica Palmer, have just covered yourself in is going to follow you throughout history,” Staebler said, calling them out by name.
He continued, “Your grandchildren are going to think of you like Bull Connor or George Wallace.”
Connor and Wallace are two notorious Alabama politicians who empowered violent, racist behavior and opposed desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement.
Read More: Trump COVID-19 official faces backlash for telling Michigan to ‘rise up’ against restrictions
He was not alone in his feedback. Journalist Jennifer Ann Wilson of WXYZ shared a Twitter thread of the public reaction including Staebler as well as a religious leader, Rev Wendell Anthony who called the Republican board members a “disgrace.” The thread continued with multiple members of the community speaking out against the deadlock.
According to the Times, after hours of outrage displayed at the virtual meeting, the video call went mute for a few minutes before the board returned and announced it had just voted unanimously to certify the results. The news outlet reported the results should be certified by November 23, however, Christopher Thomas, an adviser to the Detroit city clerk, said the board has until mid-December to submit its tallies to the Electoral College.
The Election Summary Report published by Wayne County listed 878,102 ballots cast in the 2020 election. 68.32% of those votes went to President-elect Joe Biden while only 30.27% went to outgoing POTUS Donald Trump. Overall, the entire state was called in favor of the Democratic nominee with 50.6% of the total votes according to Politico.
theGrio reported voters who hoped to legally battle vote counts in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia dropped the lawsuits challenging the results.
“There is no clear and coordinated strategy as these suits continue to crumble,” Kristen Clarke, the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said according to the report. “These suits are part of a last-ditch attempt intended to promote chaos and discord while eroding public confidence in the outcome of our elections.”
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