Friday, December 2, 2016

Michigan Recount Encounters Major Roadblocks

Michigan Attorney General Vows to Stop Recount; Donald Trump Contests It

The president-elect’s formal petition to disallow the recount calls Jill Stein's request "lawless" and "insulting."






Updated. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Friday 
that he will ask the Michigan Supreme Court to stop a statewide
 hand count of the 4.8 million ballots cast in the 2016 presidential 
election, according to reports.
The state's Board of Canvassers could render Schuette's action
 moot at a hearing Friday morning on an objection filed Thursday
 by the campaign of President-elect Donald J. Trump.
Attorneys for Trump argued that Green Party candidate
 Jill Stein, who filed the recount request and received only 
about 1 percent of the vote in Michigan, is not an "aggrieved"
 party by fraud or mistake; there is not adequate time to complete 
the recount by Dec. 13, "safe harbor" date to assure Michigan
 electors can cast ballots when the Electoral College meets 
Dec. 19; and that Stein's petition wasn't properly signed and sworn.


President-elect Donald J. Trump's campaign officially objected
 Thursday to Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s request for a 
laborious hand-recount of the state’s nearly 4.8 million ballots. 
Trump was declared the winner of the state’s 16 electoral votes
 by a margin of 10,704 votes on Monday.
The campaign said Michigan election officials should not grant
 "this lawless, insulting request."
Further, the campaign said in the objection that "voters should
 not risk having the Electoral College door knocked off its hinges
 all because a 1 [percent] candidate is dissatisfied with the
 election’s outcome. Given her tiny vote total, (Green Party 
presidential candidate Jill) Stein does not and could not 
possibly allege a good faith belief that she may have won
 the state of Michigan."
check for $973,250 to cover the costs to recount ballots in 
Michigan’s 6,300 precincts. The Green Party candidate, 
who received negligible support among Michigan voters,
 has never said her outcome would change. Rather, she has
 said she wants to ensure that all votes were counted.
Stein and her attorneys have acknowledged there is no evidence 
of fraud or impropriety but raised questions about 85,000 
ballots with “blank votes” in the presidential race — more than
 enough to make up for the difference separating Trump and 
Clinton.
Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said Wednesday the recount 
will cost more than $5 million, most of it to be borne by 
Michigan taxpayers. The state Republican party went further, 
suggesting costs could soar to $12 million.


The recount was expected to begin Friday, but Trump’s request 
will delay it, The Detroit News reported. The state Board of 
Canvassers could rule on the request by 9:30 a.m. Friday, but
 even then the recount can't start for two business days.
Election officials in Oakland and Ingham counties had hoped 
 Press reported.
Now it appears unlikely that the recount — if it is allowed — 
will be completed by Dec. 10.
Trump in the past has been critical of the recount request, 
calling it “ridiculous” and “a scam.”
“This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less
 than 1 percent of the vote overall and wasn't even on the ballot
 in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which
 she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount," the
 president-elect said in a statement.
Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Michigan
 Republican Party, has called the request by Stein a “temper
 tantrum” that won't change the outcome of the vote.

More Patch Coverage on Recounts



The recount requests came after a prominent group of election 
attorneys and computer scientists, including University 
of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman, 
claimed to have uncovered “persuasive evidence” that the
Stein has also made requests for recounts in Wisconsin and 
 but a majority of the counties plan to pursue that option, their 
right under Wisconsin law. In Pennsylvania, at least six counties 
have received recount petitions, but the situation in the Keystone
 State is more complicated than in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons

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