Recount Michigan: Judge Halts It, But Don't Count Out An Appeal

Updated. A federal judge who previously ordered Michigan to start recounting ballots reversed course late Wednesday and halted the recount of 4.8 million ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election, but more court battles may be coming in the next few days.

Still, Michigan Republican Party leaders cheered the written opinion from U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith.

State GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said Goldsmith's decision, coupled with a Michigan Court of Appeals decision saying the recount should never have been allowed and an earlier decision by the Board of Canvassers to the state elections director, mean the recount is over.

“This is a victory for the taxpayers and voters of Michigan who can be assured that their vote will count when the state’s electors meet on December 19th. The courts have affirmed the stance the campaign has maintained from day one: Jill Stein, who received only 1.07 percent of the vote in Michigan, is not legally entitled to hijack the will of voters and drag them into an arduous and expensive publicity stunt," McDaniel said in a statement. "Jill Stein’s 1 percent temper tantrum cost Michigan taxpayers millions of dollars and would have cost them additional millions of dollars if not for the actions of President-elect Trump, the Michigan Republican Party, and Attorney General Bill Schuette.”

Attorneys for Stein said the recount so far has exposed numerous voting problems, especially in Detroit, where more than half of the precincts' ballots can't be counted because poll registers and the number of ballots cast don't match. If the election in which she participated, regardless of her support, was flawed with mistakes or fraud, she's an aggrieved party, they told the Detroit Free Press.

"It is revealing some really troubling aspects of how elections are run here," Horowitz told Goldsmith during the hearing. "We think that's part of the reason the recount should continue — to continue revealing those problems so that the people of Michigan can see how their election operates."

Earlier Update: The Michigan Board of Canvassers voted 3-1 Wednesday to tell the state elections director to halt recounts of the 4.8 million ballots the state's voters cast in the 2016 presidential election if a federal judge rules the recount should stop.

At 5:14 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith had not ruled on a request to stop the recount, as state officials and the Michigan Republican Party asked in a morning hearing.

Patch's earlier update: U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith did not immediately order the massive recount of 4.8 million ballots cast by Michiganders in the 2016 presidential election, but said he would issue a written opinion, possibly on Wednesday. Goldsmith hear 90 minutes of arguments on requests filed by the Michigan Republican Party and state officials asking that the recount be immediately halted.

The hearing came after a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals said the recount should never have been allowed. A three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it should continue moments before.

In arguments before Goldsmith, lawyers for both the state GOP and the State Board of Canvassers said the recount, which has been under way since Monday, has revealed a change in only 66 votes between President-elect Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton. Trump won both the popular vote and Michigan's 16 electoral votes.

The plaintiffs repeated earlier arguments that Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who requested the recount, had not proven fraud or concerns that the voting machines were hacked.

Meanwhile, the State Board of Canvassers has halted the recount pending Goldsmith's ruling.

Patch's previous update: The massive task of recounting the 4.8 million ballots cast by Michiganders in the 2016 presidential election could end Wednesday after state and federal courts issued conflicting rulings on the matter Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith is scheduled to hear requests from the Michigan Republican Party and state officials at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. A federal appeals court said Tuesday the recount should go forward, while a state appeals court said it should never have been allowed to begin with.

Patch's original story: A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that election workers should continue their hand-recount of 4.8 million ballots cast by Michiganders in the Nov. 8, presidential action, dealing a blow to the Michigan Republican Party, which had tried to halt it.

Moments later, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals sided with Donald Trump and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and said the State Board of Canvassers should reject the recount. Trump and the attorney general both filed lawsuits after the Board of Canvassers allowed the recount to go forward.

The two conflicting rulings are sure to set the stage for more legal wrangling. In its decision, the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit said that “if, subsequently, the Michigan courts determine that plaintiffs’ recount is improper under Michigan state law for any reason, we expect the district court to entertain any properly filed motions to dissolve or modify its order in this case.”

The state court stopped short of ordering the recount to stop, and it was continuing Tuesday night, but Andrea Bitley, a spokesperson for Schuette’s office, said the intent is clear.

“The Michigan Court of Appeals said that ‘there is no conflict between’ its decision granting the Attorney General’s request for a writ of mandamus, and the federal district court’s temporary restraining order, so the recount should end immediately,” she said in a statement. “To ensure clarity for Michigan taxpayers, (and as recommended in the 6th Circuit’s opinion issued this evening), the attorney general is now filing in the federal district court a motion to dissolve the temporary restraining order."

The recount began Monday after a federal judge’s midnight ruling siding with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who asked for recounts in Michigan and two other battleground states that swung the election to President-elect Donald J. Trump. Stein, who received only about 1 percent of the vote, doesn’t expect her vote totals to change but has said the recount will lay to rest any fears that election results were hacked or that votes weren’t counted. Stein was joined in the request by Louis Novak, of Detroit, who has said he was worried his vote wasn’t counted.

Stein requested the recounts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania after a prominent group of election attorneys and computer scientists, including University of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman, claimed to have uncovered “persuasive evidence” that the election results in the three battleground states could have been hacked.

In court documents filed with the 6th Circuit, the Michigan Republican Party’s lawyers argued there was no “evidence of wrongdoing” in the election.

“All they have are conspiracy theories — backed by wholesale speculation,” the state party’s lawyers argued.

Trump and Schuette filed separate lawsuits Friday asking the state Appeals Court to block an order by the State Board of Canvassers, which deadlocked 2-2 and allowed the hand-recount to go forward. Under Michigan law, the recount was scheduled to begin within two business days, but Stein filed a federal lawsuit contesting that. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered the recount to begin immediately after a rare Sunday hearing in Detroit.

Both Schuette and the Michigan Republican Party celebrated the state appeals court ruling that said the recount should never have been allowed to begin with.

State Republican Party chair Ronna Romney McDaniel said the state appeals court ruling “is a win for Michigan taxpayers.”

“The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in our favor, determining that the petition for recount filed by Dr. Jill Stein should have been denied,” McDaniel said in a statement. “Dr. Stein is not an aggrieved candidate as she has no chance of winning the election in Michigan.”

Schuette also issued a statement:

“I’m grateful, and I know Michigan taxpayers agree, that the Michigan Court of Appeals has adhered to the rule of law, and clarity in our Michigan statute in agreeing that Jill Stein is not an aggrieved candidate and the recall must stop,” Schuette said in a statement.

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
• Jill Stein Officially Asks for Michigan Presidential Vote Recount
• Donald Trump, Jill Stein File Lawsuits on Michigan Recount
• Judge Orders Michigan Recount to Begin Monday
• Michigan Republican Party Appeals Ruling Ordering Recount to Start
• Michigan Vote Recount: Half of Detroit’s Ballots May Not Qualify

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