Despite legal battles, Michigan recount on track to begin either Monday or Wednesday
Even as Donald Trump and the Michigan GOP leadership continue to try to find ways to stop, sabotage, or slow down the inevitable statewide recount in the 2016 presidential election, third party candidate Jill Stein continues to push forward. The pushback has raised eyebrows nationwide as the public begins to ask what they might be afraid of. Despite a flurry of legal battles today, all indications are that the Michigan recount will begin on either Monday or Wednesday.
Jill Stein’s attorneys went before a U.S. District Judge this morning, arguing in federal court that the Michigan statewide recount needs to begin on Monday in order to ensure that it can be completed properly. State officials have pushed back by arguing that the recount shouldn’t begin until Wednesday, though they’ve offered no reason for the delay. An article from the Detroit Free Press newspaper, despite its misleading headline which creates the false appearance that the judge is “skeptical” about the recount in general, goes on to report that the judge is simply skeptical about ordering a Monday start. The judge’s ruling should come later Sunday, and whichever start date he decides on, the recount will be on track to begin. But legal antics of pro-Trump officials in Michigan are still ongoing.
Michigan’s Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed a petition with the Michigan Supreme Court to try to summarily stop the recount, though he’s thus far publicly offered no legal basis beyond using the hyperbolic language found in this CNN article. It appears that Michigan officials may be trying to delay the recount until Wednesday in the federal court case in the hope that the state Supreme Court may kill it before it can begin. But thus far there has been nothing to suggest those efforts will succeed. If Stein can get the recount underway this week, and all indications are that she will, the opposition could have a more difficult time trying to shut it down. She’s also suing in federal court to force a Pennsylvania recount.
