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Michigan recount now in doubt; Pennsylvania sets hearing

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jill Stein arrived for a news conference in front of Trump Tower on Monday.

DETROIT >> Michigan’s presidential recount suddenly appears in doubt after a state appeals court said the Green Party candidate’s poor showing disqualified her from seeking a second look at the votes.

Meanwhile, the fate of a statewide recount push in Pennsylvania must wait at least until Friday, when a federal judge has scheduled a hearing.

President-elect Donald Trump narrowly defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in both states and Wisconsin, which started its recount last week. The recounts requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein were not expected to change enough votes to overturn the result of the election.

Stein, who received about 1 percent of the vote in all three states, says her intent is to verify the accuracy of the vote. She has suggested, with no evidence, that votes cast were susceptible to computer hacking.

Here’s what’s happening in each state and in Nevada, where a partial recount of the race was requested by independent presidential candidate Roque De La Fuente:

WISCONSIN

Trump had widened his victory margin over Clinton in Wisconsin by 146 votes, with 23 of the state’s 72 counties having finished their recounts as of today. In those counties, Trump gained 105 votes and Clinton dropped 41 votes.

Trump defeated Clinton in Wisconsin by about 22,000 votes.

A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Friday in a lawsuit filed last week by a Trump voter and two super PACs seeking to stop the recount.

MICHIGAN

A recount that started Monday might end after the state appeals court said Stein has no standing to have the votes recounted. The court said she finished fourth in the election and doesn’t qualify as an “aggrieved” candidate under Michigan law.

The court ordered the state election board to reject her recount petition. The board meets again Wednesday.

Attorney General Bill Schuette said the decision means the recount “must stop.” But Stein’s attorney, Mark Brewer, insisted the recount isn’t over.

The ruling came a day after U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered an immediate statewide recount of roughly 4.8 million ballots. Eight counties have started, including the largest, Wayne County.

But Goldsmith’s decision dealt with the timing of the recount, not whether Stein had standing. Goldsmith called a hearing for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to address Schuette’s request to set aside the ruling in light of the state court’s decision.

Trump won Michigan by about 10,700 votes over Clinton.

Also today, a Republican-controlled committee in the Legislature approved a measure that would require candidates who lose by more than 5 percentage points to pay 100 percent of the estimated recount cost. The bill would apply to Stein, though Democrats questioned the legality of changing the rules “in the middle of the game.”

PENNSYLVANIA

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia today scheduled a hearing Friday on the request for a recount. The Republican Party and Trump warned that the case threatens Pennsylvania’s ability to certify its election before the Dec. 13 federal deadline. Stein’s team hasn’t produced evidence of hacking, but calls Pennsylvania’s election system “a national disgrace.”

Also today, Pennsylvania election officials updated the state’s vote count to show that Trump’s lead over Clinton had shrunk to about 44,000 out of more than 6 million votes cast. That is still shy of Pennsylvania’s 0.5 percent trigger for an automatic statewide recount. A state spokeswoman said 15 provisional ballots remain uncounted.

NEVADA

A partial recount is underway in Nevada at the request of De La Fuente, who finished last with a fraction of 1 percent of the vote. He paid about $14,000 for the recount to provide what he called a counterbalance to the recounts sought by Stein. Most of the 92 precincts being re-counted are in the Las Vegas area, with eight of the precincts in four other counties. If the sample shows a discrepancy of at least 1 percent for De La Fuente or Clinton, a full recount will be launched in all 17 Nevada counties. Clinton defeated Trump in Nevada by 27,202 votes, out of 1.1 million votes cast. Nevada Secretary of State spokeswoman Gail Anderson said the recount will be finished by the end of this week.

11 responses to “Michigan recount now in doubt; Pennsylvania sets hearing”

  1. WalkoffBalk says:

    When in doubt. Get a recount.

  2. kiragirl says:

    Asking for a recount means anyone with the fmoney can do so? Glad Michigan is reconsidering it and should reject the recount.

    • lespark says:

      If Klastri and his disciples would have put their money where their asinine mouths were maybe Hilliary could have won. Hot air and taunting deplorables does not win elections.

  3. Keonigohan says:

    Stein (Clinton) Recount attempt to discredit..distract..delay the election has now reached the fiasco stage….top level next: DONKEY’s DUFUS DUO.
    Liberal’s PC ideological mantra of no winners/no losers but rather “participants ” does not apply to elections…end result..two old bitter hypocritical participants who LOST.

    January 20, 2017 The WINNER begins in….#MAGA

  4. Pocho says:

    Do we homeless people in the picture? These Libertartds spend money like water, they have no sense of money’s worth and imaging the $19Trillion US Debt! Money collected for this recount could have cloth/fed/sheltered many homeless kids in need. People with money who do the talk but can’t use their common sense of all the problems in the World we face today. This is manini stuff compared to the problems we’re facing in the US today. And that’s not even speaking of what the Chinese, Russians, ISIS, etc. agressions against the Free World! These Libertards have been living sheltered lives in the USA like the rest of us but they realize there are BIGGER problems we Americans face today.

  5. sandi2000 says:

    If the recounts will not change the results of the election, why in the world are they spending millions for this fiasco. Oh yea, it’s somebody else’s money.

    • South76 says:

      Let’s ask those lib billionaires like Soros, the Clinton Foundation donors–now that they don’t have access to government contracts now that she’s defeated.

  6. fstop says:

    “Stein’s team hasn’t produced evidence of hacking, but calls Pennsylvania’s election system “a national disgrace.””

    The only national disgrace in this case is Stein herself.

  7. Donna2415 says:

    Stein is full of it. If she thinks there was some sort of hacking going on in the voting procedure, why doesn’t she ask for a recount in every state. It’s not hard to figure out why she choose only Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Only the Michigan Court of Appeals got it right by ruling she has no standing to contest the election results.

  8. AlohaKakou says:

    Crybaby losers grasping at straws. You lost – grow up and move on!

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