'Candidates don't get to decide who wins elections': Michigan secretary of state
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was asked during a press briefing Monday about the possibility that Trump could declare victory tomorrow before all the votes are actually counted.
"Candidates don’t get to decide who wins elections, voters do," Benson responded. "And so we will keep reminding folks of that truth. Candidates certainly can say and will say whatever they want to say, it doesn’t change the facts. It doesn’t change the tallies of the votes that are cast on paper ballots that will be audited after the fact and securely tabulated throughout the election to ensure the accuracy of the results, whatever those results may be."
Benson added that they "hope and expect and ask all the candidates to respect the will of the people and respect those results, and to not claim something is true when it's not."
In 2020, Trump claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.
Benson said she and her staff will be debunking false statements and conspiracy theories as they arise, but that "truth and transparency are on our side."
“We’ve seen how completely innocent things can be misused to spread false aspersions about our election, so let's all be vigilant," she said.
She also urged the public to question what they see on social media.
"Don't assume anything that you're seeing from a source other than a trusted voice or an election official has truth until you cross-check it with other sources of information," she said.
-ABC News' Mike Levine