Michigan electors will get extra police protection as they cast vote for Biden to be president
First time that state has ever needed extra security for electoral college vote casting
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Your support makes all the difference.Michigan’s presidential electors will get a police escort as they submit their electoral college votes to confirm Joe Biden as the next president.
Members of Stop the Steal, an activist movement to keep Donald Trump in power despite his defeat, say they will protest outside Michigan’s Capitol Building on Monday.
Inside, the 16 electors will sign certificates indicating their support for Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice-president.
And those electors will reportedly be given extra protection from their cars to the Lansing statehouse as Michigan is an open-carry state and many protestors are expected to be armed.
It is believed to be the first time in the state’s history that additional security has been put in place for the vote.
Mark Miller, the Kalamazoo township clerk, says that he received notification that he will get the police escort for the vote.
"I'm trusting that we will be protected. In any case, we have a duty to do and we are going to carry it out,” he told Fox17.
Mr Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes but dozens of armed Stop the Steal protestors went to the home of secretary of state Jocelyn Benson last Saturday and shouted abuse until police arrived.
During the pandemic there have been regular armed protests outside the statehouse against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s virus lockdowns.
The outgoing president has refused to concede the election to Mr Biden and repeatedly insisted that the election was tainted by voter fraud.
But his lawyers have been defeated in a string of cases in battleground states across the country and Mr Trump has failed to provide any evidence to back up his claims.
Michigan State Police have refused to comment on what additional security measures are in place.
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