Over half of Detroit’s 662 voting precincts may be ineligible for the ongoing Michigan recount, since the number of ballots in precinct poll books do not match those from voting machine printout reports.
More than a third of precincts in Wayne County, Michigan’s largest county and home to Detroit, could be disqualified from the statewide recount because county officials, “couldn’t reconcile vote totals for 610 of 1,680 precincts during a countywide canvass of vote results late last month,” according to the Detroit News.
Wayne County has over 1.7 million residents and voted overwhelmingly for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at 95 percent. Krista Haroutunian, chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, told the Detroit Free Press that the discrepancies could make 610 precincts across the county (including the 392 in Detroit), ineligible for recount. A final decision has not yet been made.
The Michigan Republican Party, President-elect Donald Trump and the state’s Republican attorney general all filed notice that they plan to appeal a U.S. District Court decision to start the recount Monday, arguing the effort should not be decided by the federal courts system. (RELATED: Michigan GOP Files Appeal To Stop Recount)
“This is a Michigan issue, and should be handled by the Michigan court system,” Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a press release.
Attorneys for the Michigan GOP filed a Notice to Appeal with the Eastern District Court of Michigan Monday, with plans to eventually appeal the ruling with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The Michigan Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for Tuesday at 4 p.m., according to a press release from the Michigan GOP.
The recount effort is in a race against the clock, as state election officials scramble to complete a hand recount of over 4.8 million presidential ballots. The judge ruled in Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s favor, starting the recount at noon Monday. The largest recount effort in the state’s history could cost taxpayers up to $12 million, according to Fox News.
In Michigan, Trump officially received 2,279,543 votes, while Clinton received 2,268,839 votes after the Election Day tally. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson received 172,136 votes, while Stein hauled in 51,463 votes.
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