After a federal court judge scuttled Jill Stein’s historic recount of
 Michigan votes in the 2016 presidential election, the state will return
a portion of the $973,250 the Green Party candidate paid to re-
tally the 4.8 million ballots in 7,786 in-person and absentee precincts.
The recount had been underway for three days and 26 counties had
 begun counting ballots before it was stopped Wednesday by U.S.
District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who tied his decision to a Michigan
 Court of Appeals decision that found Stein had no legal standing
 to request the recount.
Stein’s campaign said the refunded money will be applied to ongoing
 recounts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Stein requested the
 recounts in the three battleground states that swung the election
to President-elect Donald Trump after a prominent group of election
 attorneys and computer scientists, including J. Alex Halderman of
 the University of Michigan, said they had found “persuasive evidence” that the election results could have been hackedby a state actor.
Though no evidence of hacking was found, some vulnerabilities were
discovered in Michigan’s election process. Stein also had raised
questions about 75,000 Michigan ballots that showed no vote in the
 presidential election, higher than any other presidential election in

 the state’s history.
David Cobb, a spokesman for Stein’s campaign, told the Detroit Free
 Press the problems that showed up with ballots that couldn’t be
recounted are “a national disgrace.”
“We see that in Detroit, half of the votes were ineligible to recount
 because of antiquated state laws,” Cobb said. “Just as we were gearing
 up to discover something wrong going on, the court stopped us.”
Michigan Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams told the Free
Press that Stein will have to pay for the precincts that had been counted.
 It’s unclear how many precincts had been counted in the 26 counties
 that had begun, but the total was 1,364 in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb
 and Ingham counties at a cost of about $170,500.


Morning Briefing: GOP on Russia Hacking, UPS Driver Helps Captive Woman, Chris Christie Loses Again
Here are the biggest stories from around the U.S. to start your day.

Stein’s Michigan attorney, Mark Breer, told the Free Press that it’s fair
that the campaign pay for the precincts that were recounted but said
Stein should get a refund for those that were deemed unable to be
recounted.
However, Stein campaign spokeswoman Margy Levinson said the
 full amount should be returned, pending a longshot chance that the
Michigan Supreme Court, which has a Republican majority, orders
 the recount to resume.
The appeal before the state Supreme Court is of the Appeals Court
 decision that Goldstein should never have allowed the recount. The
 high court hasn’t said it will hear the appeal, but two Michigan
 justices who are on Trump’s short list of possible U.S. Supreme
Court nominees have disqualified themselves in the event that the
 appeal is allowed, The Detroit News reported.
They are Chief Justice Bob Young and Justice Joan Larsen. Brewer
had argued in court filings that the pair have “substantial personal
and professional interest in the election of Trump as president.”
Trump was declared the winner in Michigan by 10,704 votes on
 Nov. 28.
Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons