STEIN CONTINUES TO CLAIM “UNDER-VOTE,” OTHER IRREGULARITIES
by Sharon Rondeau
(Dec. 8, 2016) — The same judge who ordered a recount of all of Michigan’s votes in last month’s election reversed course on Wednesday night.
On Sunday night, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith had ordered a recount of all votes in Michigan to begin on Monday at noon. His order was aimed at overcoming a “two-day rule” in Michigan law which would have permitted recounting to begin on Wednesday rather than on Monday, to which plaintiff and 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein had objected.
Both the Michigan Court of Appeals and Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal appellate court, became involved in the recount as appeals to Goldsmith’s Sunday night temporary restraining order mounted from the Michigan attorney general and the Republican Party.
In his Wednesday night ruling, Goldsmith deferred to Michigan state courts to interpret the state’s election laws after a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Stein did not have “standing,” and was therefore not sufficiently “aggrieved,” to have sought the recount in the first place.
On Thursday morning, Fox News reported that the cost of the state recount, had it been completed, would have cost $2 million, but Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette had told Neil Cavuto on the same network Monday that the costs could run as high as $6 million.
Stein had contributed just under $1 million to fund the recount in Michigan and $3.5 million to the state of Wisconsin for its statewide recount, which is proceeding.
Her challenge to Pennsylvania’s election results is awaiting a hearing on Friday in federal court after she withdrew an election “contest” lawsuit from Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg last Saturday.
While elated by Goldsmith’s Sunday ruling, Stein issued a statement after his Wednesday ruling which she said “gives deference to partisan state judges in Michigan who are attempting to block the state’s recount simply because of the person who made the request, without regard for the integrity of Michigan’s electoral system.”
Claiming “75,000 under-votes” in urban areas in the state as well as “widespread carelessness, and perhaps interference, with preserving ballots,” Stein has vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Fox News.