Posted on 12/12/2016 5:03:02 PM PST by drewh
ANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan's elections bureau ordered an investigation Monday into substantial ballot discrepancies in a small portion of Detroit's voting precincts, after the discovery of a polling place where 300 people voted but only 50 ballots were properly sealed in a container.
Since learning of the issue last week during Michigan's presidential recount, state officials have learned of similar "significant mismatch" problems at roughly 20 of Detroit's 490 precincts, said Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. He said there is no reason to think votes were not counted and the differences would not have affected Republican Donald Trump's narrow victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state.
Clinton won 95 percent of Detroit's vote.
Detroit elections officials told the state that in the one precinct, the 250 missing ballots were left in the tabulator bin, "but we want to verify this," Woodhams said. It was not immediately clear what caused the inconsistencies in other precincts.
Clinton cut into Trump's 10,704-vote win by only 102 votes during Michigan's election recount, which was requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein and which covered more than 40 percent of the statewide vote before courts stopped it.
Many precincts could not be recounted, however — in Detroit and elsewhere — because the number of ballots in a sealed container did not match the number of voter names recorded in the poll book. In such cases, the election night totals stood.
It is not uncommon for there to be slight inconsistencies, typically due to human error.
"But when there's a significant mismatch, that's especially concerning," Woodhams said.
The ballots in question will be taken to the state capital, Lansing, for review. The investigation will take about three weeks.
Roughly 2 million of Michigan's 4.8 million ballots were recounted by hand, including about two-thirds of those in the suburban Detroit suburb of Oakland County and one-third of Wayne County, which includes Detroit.
"We do have a very accurate system that people should have confidence in," Woodhams said.
Clinton picked up 833 votes while Trump gained 731 more.
"It just simply would not have changed the result," Woodhams said of the recount.
A message seeking comment was left with Detroit elections director Daniel Baxter. He has blamed discrepancies on optical scanners that tally paper ballots.
Before the announcement Monday, both GOP and Democratic lawmakers had called for an investigation into the irregularities. House Democrats criticized the Detroit Department of Elections while Republicans said a probe was needed to determine if there was fraud or negligence.
Sen. Patrick Colbeck, a Canton Republican, on Monday welcomed the audit and said all problems should be documented.
"This needs to be done while memories are fresh in order to help devise a plan to eliminate such concerns for future elections," he said. .
It was rampant election fraud by the election judges who should go to prison.
Vote fraud.
Trump won MI because D thugs forgot to stuff the ballot boxes in Detroit with enough votes to eliminate Trump’s lead.
That’s the real scandal. Don’t hold your breath waiting for McQueeg to investigate it.
Not BS Russian hacking.
No red flag there . . . other than its a statistical impossibility!
Until people start veree publicly going to prison for it, it will not change.
no kidding.
It seems that when the Berlin Wall came down and the USSR was dissolved and Russia staggered down the path of open elections, they bought all the old chicago voting machines. The kind with the curtain\flip a switch to vote\pull handle to record the vote and open the curtain for the next guy.
After the vote count, Richard J Daley won the election by 160 thousand votes.
95% for the ‘Rat candidate.
Pathetic.
No.
But rest assured, they’ll make sure not to slip up next time.
That happens in every big city in America.
Democrats win with Soviet-style margins there.
voting cesspool
and as Stalin said “” it’s not the number of votes, it’s WHO COUNTS the Votes, or words to that effect.
Detroit, huh. Funny, the DNC promised there was no voter fraud.
They are really going to WISH THEY HAD STOPPED STEIN...now our side has the opening we need to CLEAN UP THE ELECTION PROCESS.
Thank you, Ms Stein.
all the ‘rats need is 5000 in detroit that is nothin
So how many election clerks need to go to prison now?
Lock em up!
Lock em up!
Good, nice, but about 9 years too late.
nope it’s right on time
Thank You, I Love It and Stole it!
Does not matter now but the fraud being investigated should have the dem’s panties in a wad! This is a needed audit not a recount.
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