Michigan Supreme Court Silent On Recount Appeal
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Green Party candidate Jill Stein had no standing to ask for a recount.
UPDATE: Michigan Supreme Court justices Robert Young and Joan Larsen will not participate in decisions related to the stalled recount of presidential election ballots. Both justices are on President-elect Donald Trump’s list of potential US Supreme Court nominees. Without the two justices, the court still has a three-to-two Republican majority. The campaign of Green Party candidate Jill Stein has appealed a lower court order that stopped the Michigan recount.
Supporters of continuing the statewide presidential ballot recount maintain the slimmest of hopes that it might resume once the Michigan Supreme Court weighs in.
A small crowd of about 45 people gathered in the plaza in front of the Michigan Hall of Justice in Lansing Thursday to call on the Supreme Court to agree to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that stopped the recount.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Green Party candidate Jill Stein had no standing to ask for a recount. The court said she had no chance of coming out on top after finishing a distant fourth in Michigan, and that disqualified her.
“We’re disappointed in the decision that’s come from the court, and I’m sure the Stein campaign will fight to see this recount continue,” said Louis Novak, a Stein elector from Detrot, who also sued the state to continue the recount. The stated goal of the Stein campaign was not to change the result, but to call attention to problems with voting systems.
Ingrid Tierney, a recount volunteer in Macomb County, said the recount effort was turning up problems.
“I just feel that it’s necessary to recount because there’s so many districts that are uncountable, and especially in Democrat areas like Wayne and Genesee counties,” she said.
Tierney says she thinks the problems have more to do with old voting machines than tampering.
