In Michigan, a mismatch between the number of ballots reported and the number of ballots found in the box would seem like a good reason for a recount … except apparently not.
The computerized poll book listed the names of 848 voters who cast ballots there, but the ballot box contained just 847 ballots. So where is the other ballot? The poll workers' notes offered no explanation.
"It didn't match on the canvass and it doesn't match now," said Joe Rozell, Oakland County's director of elections. "This precinct is not recountable.
One missing ballot is enough to declare a precinct “not recountable?” This is happening a lot, and knocking out counts in hundreds of districts.
In Wayne County, about one-third of precincts showed discrepancies during the November canvass, said Krista Haroutunian, chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. Those discrepancies could make those precincts — 610, including 392 in Detroit — ineligible for recount, though a final decision has yet to be made.
Plus: the Michigan legislature works to make recounts too expensive to contemplate, Maine takes a second look at its marijuana vote, and the Green Party goes before the judge in Pennsylvania.
Also in Michigan, the Republican-controlled state legislature is working on a bill specifically designed to punish the Stein campaign.
The Michigan House Elections Committee will hold a hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday on a bill that would require candidates who have lost a race with less than 5% of the overall vote to pick up the entire cost of a recount if they request one. The bill is worded to take effect retroactively, which could force Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to pick up the entire cost of the recount, instead of just the $125 per precinct — or $973,250 — that's prescribed under state law, and which she already has paid. State officials have estimated that the recount will cost at least several million dollars.
A retroactive bill specifically aimed at one person. Sure. Why not.
In Wisconsin there have been five days of counting—and counting—but little has changed.
The fifth day of tabulating was wrapping up for 66 counties Monday evening, while six — Crawford, Forest, Green Lake, Iron, Menominee and Price counties — have completed their recounts.
So far the margin between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton isn’t changing much. In total, statewide, the president-elect ended the day with an additional 85 votes and Clinton ended the day with a net gain of 48 votes. Those numbers don’t include Milwaukee County, which didn’t include absentee votes, so they don’t paint an accurate picture of where the vote stands. But Trump won the state by 22,000 votes, so Monday’s changes make a very minimal difference.
In Pennsylvania the Green Party has filed their federal suit, while the latest numbers in the Keystone State still hover outside the range required for an automatic recount.
An updated count Monday by state election officials showed Trump's lead shrinking to 47,750 over Clinton, out of 6 million votes cast, as more counties finished counting overseas ballots and settled provisional ballot challenges. That is still shy of Pennsylvania's 0.5 percent trigger for an automatic statewide recount. Final counts are outstanding in some counties, but there are not enough uncounted votes to change the outcome, officials say.
Stein’s suit focuses on a forensic evaluation of voting machines, which are particularly worrisome.
Pennsylvania is one of 14 states that make exclusive or partial use of electronic voting machines without a paper backup. Of 23,725 machines certified for use statewide, 22,123 record votes electronically and leave no paper trail, according to the Department of State. The machines store votes electronically and can produce a paper record of the overall tally after polls close. But there is no way for individual voters to confirm their choices were recorded accurately in the first place.
Meanwhile, it looks like there may be a late entrant to the recount race in a place where we all have bad recount memories.
Three central Florida voters are mounting an unlikely bid to overturn the presidential election result in the Sunshine State.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Leon Circuit Court, they assert that Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, actually won Florida. The plaintiffs, who live in Osceola and Volusia counties, say the state’s official election results were off because of hacking, malfunctioning voting machines, and other problems.
The suit asks for a hand recount, but the odds of a judge granting a recount in Florida at this point seem longer than long.
In other recount news, the Republican “so-there!” effort in Nevada continues with De La Fuente (who earned a whopping 0.23 percent of the vote) having his way forward greased by the GOP governor and attorney general. And get this: Because De La Fuente picked up only 202 votes in the sample precincts, and a discovery of a 1 percent discrepancy kicks off an automatic statewide recount, it will take finding just three De La Fuente votes to put the whole of Nevada up for recount with taxpayers picking up the dime.
See how nice things can be when the tricksters are on your side?
And though this is a non-presidential recount, readers in Maine might still have some interest.
The recount of votes on Maine’s contentious marijuana legalization initiative began Monday in Augusta with volunteers slowly hand-sorting thousands of “Yes” and “No” ballots, one by one. ...
Question 1 on the Nov. 8 passed by 4,073 votes – 381,692 to 377,619 – according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office.