Jill Stein Officially Asks for Michigan Presidential Vote Recount

Updated. State Republican Party officials are pushing back against a hand-recount of the nearly 4.8 million ballots cast by Michiganders in the 2016 presidential campaign, calling the recount request by Green Party candidate Jill Stein a “temper tantrum” and speculating the costs could soar to $12 million, the cost of a statewide election. Stein officially filed her request Wednesday.

Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said Wednesday costs increased from about $1 million, a little more than the amount Stein brought when she filed the request, to upward of $5 million in the last few days. The additional costs will be picked up by Michigan taxpayers.

Stein officially asked for a recount of the Michigan vote on Wednesday after previously having requested similar action in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The requests came after a prominent group of election attorneys and computer scientists claimed to have uncovered “persuasive evidence” that the election results in the three battleground states could have been hacked.

“I and the undersigned members of my slate of electors are aggrieved on account of fraud or mistake in the canvass of the votes by the inspectors of election, and/or the returns made by the inspectors and/or by the Board of County Canvassers and/or by the Board of State Canvassers,” Stein said in her request. "I request that all of the precincts and absent voter counting board precincts within the state of Michigan be recounted by hand count.”

Mark Brewer, the Michigan-based attorney who is representing Stein, brought a check for $973,250 which represents the $125 per precinct Stein must pay for the recount.

President-elect Donald J. Trump won the three states by razor-thin margins, and though he is leading in the all-important electoral vote count, he lost the popular vote by more than 2 million votes.

More Patch Coverage on Recounts

• Swing-State Hacking Fears Fuel Talk of Recounts
• It's Official: Donald Trump Wins Michigan; President-Elect Could Fight Recount
• Jill Stein Plans Court Action to Force Hand Recount of Wisconsin Ballots
• Pennsylvania Recount Petition Filed; Election Called ‘Illegal’
• Hillary Clinton Campaign Will Participate in Wisconsin Recount
• Wisconsin Recount: Jill Stein Raises $3.5M to Cover Costs
• Jill Stein Won't Appeal After Judge Rejects Hand-Count of Wisconsin Votes

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. Election officials declared Trump the winner in Michigan Monday by a margin of 10,704 votes.

“I can’t imagine the cost could be any less for a statewide recount than a statewide election,” Eric Doster, the Michigan Republican Party’s attorney, said in a statement Wednesday. “And that’s a one-day event, a statewide election. This is going to go a lot longer than one day, folks.”

In a statement Wednesday, Michigan GOP Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel accused Stein, who received only about 1 percent of the vote in Michigan, of “a reckless attempt to undermine the will of Michigan voters.”

“Jill Stein made her 1 percent temper tantrum official and will waste millions of Michigan taxpayers’ dollars, and has acknowledged that the recount will not change anything regarding the presidential election,” McDaniel said.

“Jill Stein has no chance of winning the Michigan election and she knows it,” McDaniel continued. “Stein also knows that there is no chance that she will flip enough votes to change the results of the election in Michigan. Shame on Jill Stein for throwing this taxpayer-funded temper tantrum, and shame on Democrats for not insisting that this ridiculous petition for a recount end immediately.”

Stein has never said she expects her vote total to change. Rather, she has argued that the recounts are necessary to ensure the integrity of the election.

Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons