KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The recount has begun in Ingham and Oakland counties and will begin in six more, including Kalamazoo and Ottawa counties, Tuesday morning after Detroit Federal Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered that the process should not wait the two days required by the State of Michigan for court challenges.
Judge Goldsmith ruled there would be irreparable harm done if there was a delay. That the elections process is the bedrock of the nation and that the civil rights of Green Party candidate Jill Stein and the voters to have a fair and clean election supersedes concerns about cost.
The counts themselves won’t take that long in the individual counties. Some may be able to get it done in a day. Larger counties may take up to six days.
The fact of the matter is that it will take time because there are only so many state election monitors available to oversee the process, and that means communities are scheduled between now and Dec. 13 to conduct their recounts in a sequence that accommodates that shortage of manpower.
Kalamazoo County has been tasked with hosting Branch County and their recount on Thursday. Other larger counties will play a similar role in helping smaller counties through the process.
That’s if there isn’t intervention from the courts. Lawyers from both the president-elect and the Attorney General will ask the Michigan Court of Appeals to end the recount at 4 p.m. Tuesday. They claim it costs too much and because Stein doesn’t have standing to ask for a recount.
There is no telling how that might turn out. But the Board of State Canvassers, which was to meet Monday morning to decide how they will respond to the lawsuits, have cancelled that meeting.
The Michigan Republican Party has also filed an appeal of Goldsmith’s ruling with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. They argue that the recount issue is a dispute over state elections rules, should be decided in state courts, and the Federal Courts should butt out. Judge Goldsmith made it clear in his ruling that it was very much an issue about the voters rights to a free and fair election which makes it a federal case.
If there is no court intervention, recounts will begin in Allegan, Berrien, St. Joseph, Cass and Calhoun counties on Wednesday. Van Buren County will hold their recount on Saturday. Barry County’s recount will start Sunday.
