Stein to Make Michigan Third State for Presidential Recount

Stein to Make Michigan Third State for Presidential Recount
Green party nominee Jill Stein speaks to members of the press before the start of a campaign rally in New York City on October 12, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The Associated Press
11/30/2016
Updated:
11/30/2016

LANSING, Mich.—Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein is expected to request a full hand recount of Michigan’s presidential vote, making it the third state narrowly won by Republican Donald Trump where she’s asked for a second look.

Stein is expected to submit her request for a Michigan recount Wednesday afternoon. She has already requested recounts of the presidential votes in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

President-elect Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10,704 votes out of nearly 4.8 million ballots cast in Michigan, but Stein alleges that irregularities and the potential for hacking into scanning devices call the results into question.

Michigan’s recount could start as early as Friday, though a challenge to the recount by Trump could delay it.

Trump’s victory is highly unlikely to be reversed in any of the states, but Stein has said the recount will ensure the integrity of the election.

Republicans have said a Michigan recount would cost taxpayers far more than the $973,000 Stein must pay when filing her recount petition.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, where Trump defeated Clinton by roughly 22,000 votes, Stein’s campaign said Wednesday that it won’t appeal a judge’s ruling that Wisconsin’s recount can be done without counting every ballot by hand.

Stein spokeswoman Margy Levinson said in an email that the decision to not appeal was made due to the time constraints for completing the Wisconsin recount, which begins Thursday.

The majority of Wisconsin counties planned to do a hand recount of ballots cast even though the judge’s ruling means they can choose to feed the ballots into tabulation machines to double check the counts.

Levinson said Stein’s focus will be on verifying the vote on the ground and she encouraged counties to voluntarily conduct a hand recount.

Trump defeated Clinton in Pennsylvania by about 71,000 votes, or about 1 percentage point.