Announcer you are watching cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Created as a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. Statehigans secretary of gave an update on the Election Results and took a few questions from reporters. The Associated Press declared joe biden the winner in michigan, but the Trump Campaign is pursuing legal action over the states handling of ballots. This runs about 20 minutes. Good evening. I am proud to announce the results of our successful election in michigan. For nearly six weeks from the moment the polls closed the moment voters began voting to the moment the polls closed 8 00 p. M. Tuesday night, a Record Number of michigan citizens turned out to make their voices heard in a historic president ial election. We saw Record Numbers of voters cast their ballots and overall more than 5. 2 million michiganders voted in the selection. Who voted, 3. 2 million voted absentee, using the mail or local drum boxes or local clerk drop boxes or local clerks. Person voting was especially smooth. Citizens of all backgrounds observed the process and respected our voters right to cast their votes free from threat or intimidation. Here we are 24 hours after the polls closed in michigan. I am pleased to announce in michigan the process of tabulation is by and large complete and counties are in the final stages of receiving reports from the leicester meaning jurisdictions. This is far quicker than we expected. Estimated itally would take our election workers 80 hours to count the 3. 3 million absentee ballots cast based on the fact that it took 40 hours to count every one of the 1. 6 million. Just as they have done all you, our all year, our clerks worked with us to meet the extraordinary challenges of the election, preparing te diligently. Resultsow able to offer to the American Public far sooner than estimated. The overall process was smooth, efficient, secure and accurate. Behind the scenes, there was a tremendous, heroic effort of our clerks and staff who rose to meet every challenge every step of the way and handled their work with diligence, grace, and a sincere commitment to ensuring every vote was counted and every voice was heard. Now, as the unofficial results are ramping up, we now turn to the canvassing part of the process which involves a bipartisan process of checks and balances that will proceed over the next 13 days. As that stage begins in michigan and we continue to see the results of this historic election unfold nationwide, i would caution everyone against spreading information designed misinformation designed to sow seeds of doubt. Whether it is doctored images, false tweets or frivolous lawsuits, the purpose is the same, to reduce the publics faith in our elections and their outcome. But those efforts will not succeed. In michigan, the process worked. Our system is secure, accurate, and anyone who tells you otherwise is attacking our democracy or unhappy with the result. We will continue to tell the truth and the true story of how in michigan we successfully ran an election with recordbreaking turnout in the midst of a pandemic. We need every voter and citizen to prepare to counter misinformation and disinformation that may escalate in the days ahead. Stand up in support of our democracy. Do not allow scare tactics and lies to win the day. Voters, members of the media, and elected officials and others to stand vigilant with us to commit to reporting only verifiable, Accurate Information in the days ahead. Not just about michigan, but every state in our country. Above all else, demonstrate your patriotism by standing up in support of the integrity of our elections. However the days ahead play out, the health of our nation and democracy requires us to come together in respect of the will of our voters and sanctity of the elections process. In michigan, i am proud to confirm all valid ballots and only valid ballots have been counted and our Election Results reflect the will of the people. Now i am happy to take questions. Thank you for your work tonight. Toant to take a moment emphasize and underscore the extraordinary amount of work that went into this election with over 1500 clerks around our state and 83 county clerks who worked alongside tens of thousands of election workers to exceed every expectation of this years election. The work underscores they are not just the most valuable players in our democracy, but the heroes of our democracy. They come from all backgrounds, all political parties. I am so grateful we are able to show results from michigan that accurately reflect the will of the people. Thank you. Reporter good evening, secretary. My question is on the lawsuit from the Trump Campaign. You just used in your Opening Statement frivolous lawsuits. Are you calling this lawsuit frivolous . What are your thoughts going into the court system where your directive on the ban on open carry guns was shut down by the Michigan Court of appeals . The third part of this question is do you think this is the lawsuit the president intends to take to the u. S. Supreme court . Sec. Benson yes, i do believe it is frivolous. I am gratified that our elections on tuesday were smooth. The said repeatedly, as court of appeals in the case you mentioned underscored, that voter intimidation in michigan is illegal, that threatening to harm in any way voters on their way to vote is illegal, and we are ready to respond if those incidents occur in michigan. Thankfully they didnt. I am glad voters heard our call to make our precincts places where people were proud to bring their kids to watch the democratic process in action. That was the story of voters of all backgrounds respecting each other and protecting everyones right to vote. I am grateful for that. Usekly different from the of the legal system to file frivolous claims as a way of sowing seeds od seeds of doubt about the integrity of our elections. I will remain steadfastly determined in the days ahead to continue to correct false information and tell the extraordinary story of our elections in michigan this year of our clerks rising to the occasion, managing and overseeing a recordbreaking voter turnout election in the midst of a pandemic and still delivering results effectively, securely, and accurately to the american people. Reporter hi, secretary. Quick question. You mentioned at the beginning [indiscernible] of the 100,000 that were outstanding this morning, how iny are left to be counted, which communities . Sec. Benson the tabulation process is complete now. There is a process of finalizing and reporting the results to the county. That is happening as we speak. I wanted to emphasize the tabulation, particularly in the communities i mentioned, has been completed and is being prepared to be published, providing that full and official tabulate and unofficial tabulation so we can move to the official tabulation in the days ahead. Thanks for taking my question. Ask about what happened today. You mentioned some things might be staged and misinformation. What do you make about the complaints they had . Sec. Benson thanks for the question. What we saw at tcs center from the preprocessing on monday up through tonight was, by and lar ge, a transparent process where representatives were able to observe the process and it proceeded efficiently and with integrity. As for the folks who showed up in the late hours to cause distraction and make a lot of n oise, if they thought they would stop anyone from doing their job, they dont know detroit. Reporter hi, secretary benson. Going back to the lawsuit the president filed in michigan today, the claim the players and is making the president is making his ballots were counted allowing challengers to observe the process. I wanted you to respond to that specific claim. If you could briefly walk through the process of what the bipartisan teams are meant to give. Meant to do. Sec. Benson i called it a frivolous lawsuit without merit because that is what it is. We will let the process play out. What i can say with confidence ot the absentee ball tabulation process was transportation was transparent, efficient, secure. Workers took great pride in the important work they knew they were doing. I am proud to stand before you tonight and say they finished their work significantly more efficiently than we predicted. That is a reflection of the process working. I am proud to defend it. Reporter hi, secretary benson. Election site was advertising result as not counting absentees. Sec. Benson the tabulation is finished and they are in the process of finalizing everything. Whicht process continues, involves a lot of checks and is a number of bookkeeping things they have to do to secure any element for that official canvassing process that is about to begin. That is what you are seeing there. They are working as we speak to finalize that process. The actual tabulation has been completed. Reporter hi, secretary. Can you hear me . Just a few days ago you and the governor were talking about having final unofficial results in by friday. We are two days ahead of schedule. What main factors do you point to . Sec. Benson we set that estimate, which would have been 80 hours from the moment we started tabulating. Us 40 hourst took milliono process ballots. We estimated it would take toys as long to tabulate those ballots. Twice as long to tabulate those ballots. We did was ings some cases doubling or tripling the number of ballot tabulators on hand. Secondly, we increased the number of people able to be hired, protecting the requirement to have bipartisan teams evaluating the process, but also making her we had more people on hand. Sure we had more people on hand. We also would love to have more time. The Bipartisan Policy Center recommends seven days. States like florida or ohio count quite efficiently. Or states that allow prereprocessing of p reprocessing of absentee ballots prior to election day. States like pennsylvania are not able to begin tabulation until polls are closed. If we check in with communities throughout the day on monday, we found the real benefit was setting everything out, getting smooth processes in place so as tuesday, 00 a. M. Hit they were ready to go. Forward, i anticipate we will continue to ask the legislature in future elections to give us more time on the front end so we are not always in the position of having to make everyone wait as the full tabulation proceeds in the days that follow the closing of the polls. Hi, i cant hear you. Reporter hello. Sec. Benson i hear you nonw. Reporter the chair of the wayne the center. Was at she had status as a pole challenger poll challenger. Aven her role, is that conflict of interest, or is there any law that says she may have crossed a line . Sec. Benson that is the first time i am hearing about that. That said, we mentioned transparency is on our side. We support a lot of eyes on the process. We know the county board of canvassers and state board of canvassers will have an Important Role to play in certifying the official results in the days to follow. In recognizing that, transparency and openness is important and we welcome that openness. We welcome people who wish to observe the process. We simply draw the line when those individuals become disruptive or try to interfere with the sanctity of our elections. We have no more hands raised. Sec. Benson thank you, everyone. I hope everyone gets some rest and heeds our call to push back against the misinformation we believe will escalate potentially in the days ahead and respect the will of the voters and bring our country and state together in furtherance of our democracy. Thank you. Announcer use your laptop or phone to follow the results of the historic 2020 election. Go to cspan. Org election. Our national map to track the president ial race, see the popular vote tally, Electoral College count map. Stream live or ondemand any time on Election Night at cspan. Org election. Announcer House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy was reelected to another term in tuesdays general election. He spoke to reporters about the results of the election. [indistinct chatter]