By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Division in this country was glaringly apparent in the Nov. 8 presidential election in which Donald Trump triumphed in the electoral college but Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

The divide continued with votes being recounted in Michigan and local clerks helping with the process prior to a federal judge’s decision to halt the recount late Wednesday. The recount halt was under appeal as of presstime.

Even Brandon Township Clerk Candee Allen was split on the recount.

“I see both sides, people do question the mechanics— do the machines work properly? I believe they do, but I understand the skepticism,” she said. “On the other hand, it’s a waste of money. The taxpayers will pay huge.”

Green Party Candidate Jill Stein, who received 1 percent of Michigan’s votes cast for president on Nov. 8,

filed a court request for the recount on Nov. 30, getting in under the deadline. The same day, Allen said she received an e-mail from the county inquiring about how many election workers might be available to recount ballots. Recount challenges were mounted and court battles ensued, but U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered the recount to proceed, and on Monday morning, Allen arrived to her office and an urgent email. By 10:10 a.m., she was at the Oakland Schools conference center in Waterford, getting a 30-minute training.

By noon, the recount was underway, with 75 teams of two workers each for a total of 150 sitting at tables, each team given a ballot container from a precinct. They checked to make sure the ballot containers were sealed, with no possible breaches.

Each container was to have the number of ballots on the inside listed on the outside of the container, and that number must be matched to the number listed in the poll book from the Nov. 8 election. The ballots are counted in batches of 25, and criss-crossed in stacks. If the numbers do not match, even in the likelihood of human error from poll workers, the ballots in that container will not be part of the recount, according to state law.

As of presstime Wednesday, officials were already reporting that in Oakland County at least 17 precincts would not be recounted because of discrepancies, and in Wayne County, as many as 610 precincts, including 392 in Detroit, did not have matching numbers, potentially nullifying their recount.

According to the original results, Trump won the state by 10,704 votes.

Allen was joined by nine election workers from the township, as well as clerks and deputy clerks from around the township, including Groveland Township Clerk Pam Mazich and Deputy Clerk Patti Back and election workers from other county communities. Up to four observers may sit at each table as the workers open the bags, count the ballots, and then once all are counted, divide the ballots according to presidential candidate, then count the numbers for each candidate, recording everything on a worksheet.

In Genesee County, the recount started Wednesday, with new Atlas Township Clerk Katie Vick and former clerk and new Atlas Supervisor Tere Onica going to the county administration building in Flint to help from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., counting two Flint precincts.

“It was pretty well organized,” said Vick. “We check the seals, and then count the ballots, in packs of 25, criss-crossing them. It’s very methodical, and if there is an error, you hold up a flag. Everything ran smoothly.”

Vick notes the first precinct bag she counted was without incident, “completely right and dead-on,” but the second bag held a surprise— an additional vote for Jill Stein. In that bag, she found a ballot where the voter had wrote in Bernie Sanders as the choice for president, but the former Democratic candidate was not a valid write-in. In such cases, she explains, if the voter had chosen a straight party option, as this voter did for the Green Party— it defaults to that choice, thus adding a vote for Stein.

“The irony is that she is the one challenging, even though it is unlikely to make any difference for her,” said Vick. “I think everyone deserves the right to challenge something on the ballot if it is contestable, but in this instance, the outcome won’t be altered, which is an unnecessary expense to the whole state.”

The recount was expected to take about seven days, with a cost of $150 per worker, per day, but was halted on Wednesday by Goldsmith, with the final decision regarding the recount uncertain as of presstime.

“Stein has to pay $125 per precinct, about $900,000, but at the end of the day the tab could be $5 million,” said Allen. “If it was under 1,000 votes (separating Trump and Clinton) that would be close. I don’t think it will change the outcome.”

Still, Allen will be there if needed and as duty calls.

“We are going to defend our integrity, that the state of Michigan does elections correctly. We have good safeguards in place. I know I’m making history. I’m glad I can help. If we are going to do it, we are going to do our best.”