Michigan Warns Where Not To Look For Latest Election Results

The website for the Michigan Secretary of State is the “last place” to look for up-to-date election results, the officeholder said Thursday.

“We advised many journalists and the public ahead of the election that our website is always the last place for things to be updated and that they should check county websites first for more up-to-date results,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a statement to news agencies Local 4 and ClickOnDetroit.

The Detroit Free Press has been tabulating national, state and local races with regular updates. As of 11:51 a.m. ET, the Free Press finds former U.S. President Joe Biden with 2,788,425 of the votes in the state, or 50.6%. President Donald Trump took 2,639,037, or 47.9%, while Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen took 1.1% of the vote with 60,201 ballots cast in her favor. At least 99% of the votes have been tabulated.

WOOD TV 8, an NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, the state’s second-most populous city, offers a county-by-county look at the results on its website. UpNorthLive, an online news website covering the state’s northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula, gives a detailed look at races down to school board election results.

Benson said about two-thirds of the total vote came by absentee ballots, which Trump said, without citing evidence, were subject to fraud. Those people voting absentee could mail their ballots in, deposit them in official ballot boxes or drop them off at their local clerk’s office. In-person voting went “exceptionally smooth,” she said.

In her written statement, Benson said the “administrative and procedural” steps in place in her office means the tallies by the Secretary of State's office can take “some time,” but is in no way indicative of fraud.

All major media outlets by Wednesday evening had declared Biden won Michigan’s 16 votes in the Electoral College. The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit against the Michigan count, saying it did not have “meaningful access” to the ballots. Johnson told CBS News the lawsuit was “frivolous.” Both Democratic and Republican observers were on hand observing the count.