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Secretary Benson: Michigan's Count Can Be Trusted

(CBS DETROIT) - Over five million votes were cast in Michigan. Roughly three million were absentee and as the tallies pour in from Michigan's 83 counties, Secretary Jocelyn Benson says every vote is valid and accurate.

"It's great to see that more citizens, two-thirds of the electorate voted absentee than ever before and it's really encouraging to see that yesterday throughout the day over 28,000 eligible citizens registered and voted on Election Day. The vast majority of those were young voters under the age of 30," said Benson.

Big cities in Michigan like Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint and Kalamazoo kept clerks working overtime and left voters patiently waiting.

Results in the 2020 general election came with a slower turn-around due to a record-breaking number of ballots.

Secretary Benson says this election exceeded Michigan numbers in 2008 when Obama won the white house.

"We understand that the eyes of the nation are on Michigan right now and our voters and these ballots," she said.

Benson is defending Michigan's voter integrity.

She says the votes are tabulated by 1,520 local jurisdictions and reported to the state.

Benson stresses that's it's a methodical process that's carefully handled to ensure the authenticity of the results.

"As an election law attorney myself, who spent close to two decades working on election law issues and ran a law school, we're very familiar with the process and legality of our process and have great confidence in it and we're ready to defend it," she said.

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