Watch CBS News

Broken Voting Machines Could Wreak Havoc For Wayne County Recount

DETROIT (WWJ) The presidential ballot recount is underway for Wayne County, and President-elect Donald Trump's representative Mark Brandenberg already knows the outcome: It's a waste of time, he says.

"The polite word is silly," he told WWJ Newsradio 950's Mike Campbell, watching the proceedings at Cobo Center. "It isn't going to change anything, it's going to waste a lot of taxpayer money, counties are going to lose money for vital services."

On the other side, a watcher for Green Party candidate Jill Stein's recount effort said "I think it's important that every vote is counted."

Wayne County could represent a serious situation in the recount attempt as one-third of precincts could be disqualified because of problems with ballots, per the Detroit News.

In 59 percent of precincts in heavily Democratic Detroit ballots in precinct poll books did not match those of voting machine printout reports, and according to state law, "precincts whose poll books don't match with ballots can't be recounted," the Detroit News found. "If that happens, original election results stand," the Detroit News wrote, adding, "The city's decade-old voting machines are reportedly to blame, with 87 vote scanners breaking on Election Day."

Regardless, election workers are counting over a million ballots by hand at Cobo Center -- where the recount of presidential ballots in Wayne County is underway following U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith's order to hand recount 4.8 million ballots, granting a motion in favor of Stein. The recount will continue throughout the week.

Fred Woodhams, who is with the Secretary of State, says it's not unique to Michigan to have a recount, but the scope of this is larger than normal.

"The issue with Wayne is there's a lot of ballots here, it's a very large county, Michigan's largest, of course," Woodhams said. "The Electoral College won't meet until December 19th. We are planning to be done by December 13th. We do have a plan that we're executing, we do have a schedule for the 83 counties across the state, but no question it is extremely challenging."

Republican President-elect Donald Trump won Michigan by a razor-thin margin of 10,704 votes in the election where he handily defeated Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote by more than 2 million votes.

Clinton supporters are hoping to find untapped votes in places like Wayne County, where Clinton won by a 2-1 ratio.

 

 

 

 

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.