While the vote counting in the 2020 US presidential election continues, it appears that the portrayal of Joe Biden as the electoral victor in Michigan might've been a bit premature.
The figures available at the The Office of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's website, updated at 11:20 pm, 4 November, portrayed Trump in the lead with 51.07 percent of the votes (2,373,024 votes in total), with Biden trailing him with 47.35 percent (2,200,470 votes in total).
But as the results from two out of Michigan's 83 counties were yet to be accounted for at the time that data was revealed, Associated Press went on to argue that their "analysis of votes and remaining ballots left to be counted" shows that "there were not enough votes left in Republican-leaning areas for Trump to catch Biden's lead", and to proclaim the Democratic candidate as the winner in that state.
This development left at least some social media users ponder on the meaning of these figures and offer their thoughts on the voting process in Michigan.
81 of 83 counties reporting. How many precincts in those last two counties have reported?
— James Tweedie (@ElTweedie) November 5, 2020
I think the two counties left are Detroit and Wayne county and detroit dumped 191K votes for Biden and 12K for Trump and something similar with wayne county and they have their own individual government county websites with a summary of their votes. Detroit as we know though pic.twitter.com/9yt5wZyzdf
— 💋✨ (@love_laite) November 5, 2020
On Wednesday, 4 November, Trump's campaign announced that they filed lawsuits to halt ballot counting in Michigan.
In a statement, Trump's 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien insisted that they haven't been provided access to counting locations to observe the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law.
"We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted," the statement said. "We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access. President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else."
Meanwhile, Biden announced the creation of "the largest election protection effort ever assembled", urging people to "chip in to the new Biden Fight Fund" and declaring that “Donald Trump doesn’t get to decide the outcome of this election — the American people do."
