Sanilac County Clerk Denise McGuire said she hasn’t yet canceled her recount team. While a federal judge late Wednesday halted the hand recount of 4.8 million ballots cast for president in Michigan after days of conflicting court decisions, McGuire isn’t quite sure the wild ride is over. “We are scheduled for Sunday, I am waiting until tomorrow before I call the recount team members to cancel,” she said in an email. “The Bureau of Elections’ message was they didn’t expect it to resume and I want to make sure further appeals are not filed today.” St. Clair County was scheduled to begin the recount of its nearly 80,000 ballots Thursday morning. Following orders from the state that came after the judge’s decision, County Clerk Jay DeBoyer called off his workers planning to come to the Blue Water Convention Center. “We are not going to turn the ballots back to the local clerks and we are not going to tear down our room any time soon,” he said.
In his eight-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith said “there is no basis” for him to ignore a state court ruling that said the recount should never have started, referring to the Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that Green Party Candidate Jill Stein was not an aggrieved candidate because she had no chance of winning with just 1 percent of the vote.
State officials have said the recount could cost $5 million to taxpayers.
Stein has said she didn’t expect a recount in Michigan — or in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania where she’s also seeking recounts — to change the election, but was needed to verify the integrity of the process.
Full Article: Clerks still in limbo following halt of recount.