Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers has officially confirmed what many have known for weeks: Donald Trump is the winner of Michigan and its 16 electoral votes.
The agency said that Trump won by a margin of 10,704 votes over rival Hillary Clinton, three weeks after Election Day. That vote margin was confirmed last week, but state officials didn’t officially call the state for Trump until Monday.
It means that Trump officially has 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232, and that Trump is the first Republican presidential candidate to win Michigan since former President George H.W. Bush took the state in 1988.
It takes 270 votes in the Electoral College to be elected president.
The Detroit Free Press, meanwhile, reported that the Michigan Republican Party and the Trump campaign are searching for observers and volunteers for a hand recount that may be initiated by ex-Green Party nominee Jill Stein. She has indicated she will start a recount effort in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Stein has until Wednesday to request a recount of the 4,799,284 ballots cast in the state to the cost of $787,500 after raising nearly $7 million in an online fundraiser, including legal fees, for the three-state recount effort. Clinton’s campaign has signaled they will also partake.
A Michigan state official said Trump has the right to object for a recount of the state, noting that as a requested recount in the state is not automatically granted, according to another Detroit Free Press report on Monday.
“If the objections are overturned by the board, the recount can commence after the second business day following the issuance of the board’s decision,” Michigan Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams said.
Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told The Associated Press that a recount in the state is “a waste of time and disrespectful to all Michigan voters.”
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