Donald Trump's lawyers file objection to Michigan recount: "Jill Stein's 1 percent temper tantrum cannot go unchecked"

"Stein is not an aggrieved candidate," the president-elect's counsel argued, because "she cannot possibly win"

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published December 2, 2016 3:04PM (EST)

Donald Trump; Jill Stein; Hillary Clinton   (Reuters/Carlo Allegri/AP/Erik Kabik/Carolyn Kaster)
Donald Trump; Jill Stein; Hillary Clinton (Reuters/Carlo Allegri/AP/Erik Kabik/Carolyn Kaster)

President-elect Donald Trump doesn't want there to be a recount in Michigan — and his campaign is throwing a classic Trumper tantrum to make sure it doesn't happen.

According to a report by The Washington Post on Thursday, attorneys representing the president-elect have filed an objection with the Board of State Canvassers arguing that there isn't enough time to complete the recount, that Stein's petition wasn't properly notarized, and that Stein's poor showing in that state deprives her of a credible case to having been "aggrieved" by the results of the election.

“Jill Stein’s 1 percent temper tantrum cannot go unchecked,” said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel, Mitt Romney's niece. “Stein is not an aggrieved candidate, she cannot possibly win, and she is putting the participation of every single Michigan voter in jeopardy, for no reason, at an exorbitant cost to the Michigan taxpayers.”

In response to this, Stein issued a statement describing the Trump objection as "cynical efforts to delay the recount and create unnecessary costs for taxpayers" and felt they are "shameful and outrageous.”

Although Stein has also requested recounts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, she has been particularly specific in pointing to "red flags" in Michigan's results.

“Michigan has this very high level of under votes, that is, blank ballots. This is quite an unusual number,” Stein said in a Wednesday radio interview on WDET's "Detroit Today." Stein's comment referenced the 75,335 ballots cast without a vote in the presidential contest in 2016, a figure twice as large as from 2008 and a 61 percent increase from 2012.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Donald Trump General Election Hillary Clinton Jill Stein Michigan Recount