Dozens of armed people gathered outside Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's home over the weekend "shouting obscenities" and threatening violence in an effort to overturn the presidential election results in the state, she said Sunday.
Benson and her 4-year-old son had just finished decorating their home for Christmas and were about to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" when the group arrived, she said in a statement.
"The demands made outside my home were unambiguous, loud and threatening," she said. "They targeted me in my role as Michigan's Chief Election Officer.
"Through threats of violence, intimidation and bullying, the armed people outside my home and their political allies seek to undermine and silence the will and voices of every voter in this state, no matter who they voted for," she said.
Gabriel Sterling, a top Republican elections official in Georgia, said last week that President Donald Trump's repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him had led to death threats, intimidation and harassment.
Saying the claims have to stop, Sterling called on Trump to "step up" and condemn the threats. But Trump returned to Georgia on Saturday and repeated the baseless assertions.
Michigan's State Board of Canvassers certified the election results for President-elect Joe Biden on Nov. 23. An NBC News projection showed that he defeated Trump by more than 150,000 votes.
Trump and his allies made baseless allegations about irregularities and discrepancies in Detroit's vote tallies and called on the Legislature to name Trump electors, despite Biden's victory.
Trump and other Republicans have also filed nine lawsuits in Michigan, alleging fraud and other irregularities. As of last week, most of the suits had been withdrawn or denied. In one case, a judge described the allegations as "inadmissible hearsay within hearsay."
