Regret to report, a federal judge in Michigan has halted the recount of Presidential ballots, basing that decision on a separate, state-level court finding that Stein did not, after all, have “standing” to request a recount, as there was no chance of Stein’s winning.
www.theguardian.com/...
Mark Goldstein is the same federal judge who on Monday ordered the recount started, the Guardian reports. But that was a “separate” issue, only to do with timing.
So as with Fla. in W. vs Gore, 2000, we have a recount halted in midstream.
Goldstein neatly “divided the baby in half” says my embittered mind.
I have no opinion on whether the recount had any chance to change the outcome.
It did have a chance to bring greater attention to the parlous state of the election mechanisms in some jurisdictions.
And according to the Guardian, this decision scuttles any outside chance for the election to go to Hillary, who would have had to flip Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania all three.
Even if there were to be a successful appeal on this, presumably it would come too late becase the count has now been halted. Here we go again.
Latest episode: “It’s Mourning in America.”
Addendum: I see this also made it into the “Overnight News Digest,” but since not everyone might read that, I’ll just leave it here.