Trump flips Michigan county after ‘error’ initially had Biden in the lead
Donald Trump has won a recount in a Michigan county, after election officials questioned Joe Biden’s lead in the Republican stronghold. Another error elsewhere in the state also skewed down-ballot results in the Democrats' favor.
Preliminary results in Antrim County showed a decisive victory for the Democratic challenger, who was up more than 3,000 votes with 98 percent of precincts reporting. Trump won the county by 4,000 votes in 2016, raising questions in this deep-red area of Michigan. Local election officials decided to carry out a partial hand recount, which showed Trump ahead in the county by nearly 2,500 votes.
The strange tabulation error was mentioned during a press conference held by Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox in which she raised questions about an alleged “glitch” in the election software used in 47 Michigan counties.
One Michigan county clerk caught a glitch in tabulation software so they hand counted votes and found the glitch caused 6,000 votes to go to Biden + Democrats that were meant for Trump and Republicans. 47 MI counties used this software. All must check now! pic.twitter.com/21AXyJZDZi
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) November 6, 2020
Antrim County had to hand-count all of the ballots, and these counties that use this software need to closely examine their results for similar discrepancies.
The software, Election Source, is used by Antrim County, and the incorrect results were initially blamed on the program. However, the county’s election officials now say human error was behind the problem, explaining that it’s likely a small change made to the ballot resulted in the miscalculation, according to local 9&10News. The Detroit Free Press reported that the issues were the result of both human and software errors. Officials stressed that there was always a clear paper trail that allowed for any errors to be corrected.
Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers is now verifying a full audit of the county’s ballots, 9&10News said.
Antrim isn’t the only Michigan county to report counting issues. In Oakland County, a computer glitch erroneously handed victory to a Democratic candidate for commissioner. The Republican incumbent was declared the winner on Friday. Some state officials and voters have raised concerns that the faulty tabulations could have occurred elsewhere in Michigan.
The problems come amid accusations from the Trump campaign that voter fraud linked to late or improperly marked mail-in ballots tipped the scales in Biden’s favor. Trump was initially leading in Michigan before the state flipped blue. On Wednesday morning, the president was ahead by about 1.3 points with 83 percent of the votes tallied. Biden now has a 3-point lead.
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