LANSING, MI (WHTC) – For the first time in 48 years, there will be a statewide recount of an election vote in Michigan.
Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein has formally requested that the November 8th results in Michigan be counted over again. This will involve nearly 4.8 million votes cast in this state, and follows similar petitions in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Using former state Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer as her local attorney on the matter, Stein claims that the machine tabulators that count Michigan’s paper ballots are prone to error and possible tampering, and all she seeks is accuracy and integrity. Stein received about one percent of this state’s vote.
The campaign of defeated Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton is reportedly supportive of Stein’s efforts. The up-front cost for a recount is 790 thousand dollars, but Michigan GOP officials claim that the price tag of such a recount in this state could top more than 12 million dollars.
The Board of State Canvassers has a meeting scheduled on Friday to consider this and any other similar petitions. According to state law, the recount must be completed by December 13th, ahead of the Electoral College convening on December 19th to confirm the election of Republican Donald Trump.
The last statewide recount, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office, came during the 1968 vote on Daylight Savings Time, with the last recount for an elected statewide office was in 1952 when G. Mennen Williams was elected Governor.