It's on: Federal judge orders Michigan recount to start immediately

New post on Palmer Report


It’s on: federal judge orders Michigan recount to start immediately
by Bill Palmer
After a rare Sunday hearing in federal court to determine whether the Michigan recount should begin immediately or face a waiting period, the judge in question took the entire rest of the day – literally – to make up his mind. But after midnight local time, the federal judge announced that the statewide Michigan recount in the presidential election must immediately begin in the morning.

This comes after the state of Michigan had argued in court that the recount shouldn't begin until Wednesday. It appeared to be an attempt at stalling so that Michigan's Repuican Attorney General would have time to sue to get the recount killed before it began. But the judge apparently saw through that ruse, with local newspaper Detroit Free Press now confirming that the recount must begin on Monday.

Stein argued in part that the severe under vote in the presidential election, which Palmer Report reported a week ago, was evidence that the vote counting machines may have missed presidential votes while recording downticket votes on the same ballot. The lack of a Governor or Senate race in Michigan in 2016 made the unusually high 87,000 undervotes stand out as suspicious. In any case we're about to find out, as the recount is now just hours away from kicking off.