Obama appointee federal judge, Mark Goldsmith, to decide in 2 hours, whether he will agree with the MI state Court of appeals and will stop MI recount
Posted on | December 7, 2016 | No Comments
Michigan’s historic presidential election recount is headed back to federal court this morning, with the Michigan Republican Party arguing the recount needs to stop immediately now that a state appeals court has concluded it should never have been allowed to begin with.
A 10:30 a.m. hearing on the recount has been scheduled before U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who ordered the recount to begin Monday, two days before state officials had scheduled it to start.
His decision to start an immediate recount was upheld by a 3-judge panel with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals late Tuesday. But moments later, the Michigan Court of Appeals issued a 3-0 opinion saying the recount never should have started because the person requesting it — Green Party candidate Jill Stein — had no chance of winning with her 1% of the total vote, and was therefore not a qualified aggrieved party under state law.
President-elect Donald Trump and the Michigan Republican Party have argued that point all along — that Stein has no standing to request a recount. Recount opponents also have argued that the recount is unfairly costing Michigan taxpayers “nearly $1 million per day,” and that this is an issue for the state courts to decide, not federal courts.
Goldsmith will rehear arguments from both sides today. In issuing an immediate recount, Goldsmith concluded that Stein and Michigan voters would have suffered “irreparable harm” if the recount was not started quickly enough to get it completed before a Dec. 13 federal deadline to guarantee Michigan’s 16 electoral votes are counted.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers is scheduled to meet in Lansing at 9:30 a.m. today. Last Friday, the board deadlocked 2-2 on Trump’s objection to Stein’s request for a recount, which allowed the hand recount to move forward. But the Michigan Court of Appeals now says the board erred in its decision.
The board of state canvassers has previously noted that Michigan’s electors already have been certified and their names have been sent to Washington.
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