Reports from Detroit indicate there were discrepancies in nearly 60 percent of the counties, where two-thirds of the city's precincts had too many votes.
Optical scanners in Wayne County show that 248 of the city's 662 precincts counted over one third more ballots than the number of voters reported by poll workers. That totals 37 percent more voters than originally counted, and because of the statewide discrepancies, Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson sanctioned a state audit of the votes.
The Detroit News reported that many Detroit precincts could not be counted during the Michigan statewide recount that ended Friday.
Statewide, records indicate that 10.6 percent of precincts in the 22 counties that were subject to the recount could not be counted because state law prohibits including any precincts that are unbalanced or any ballot boxes with broken seals. In Detroit alone, officials were not able to recount 392 precincts.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton handily won Detroit and Wayne County in the presidential election, even though President-elect Donald Trump took the state of Michigan by less than one percent.
Chairwoman of Wayne County Board of Canvassers Krista Haroutunian told The Detroit News, “There’s always going to be small problems to some degree, but we didn’t expect the degree of problem we saw in Detroit. This isn’t normal."
City officials reported that ballots in Wayne County were never removed from a locked bin below a voting machine tabulator on Election Day. Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams commented on the matter, “That’s what we’ve been told, and we’ll be wanting to verify it. At any rate, this should not have happened.”
It is not yet classified as an investigation, but Woodhams implied that an investigation wasn't out of the question.
"Based on what we find, it could lead to more,” he said.
Sara Gonzales
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