Last night we noted that Team Hillary, which was supportive of Jill Stein's recount efforts, should be careful what they wish for. New data released yesterday revealed that voting machines in 37% of all Detroit precincts, which skew heavily democratic, registered more votes than they had of actual voters showing up at the polls. The scale of the "voting irregularities" discovered prompted an automatic vote audit by the Michigan Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson.
Today, we learn from the Detroit News, to our "complete surprise," that the "voting irregularity" rabbit hole in Detroit is a bit deeper than initially thought. According to a memo penned by Wayne County election officials, 95 of the 662 precincts in Wayne County waited several days before delivering their poll books to canvassers and 5 of those poll books are still "missing" even today.
Detroit elections officials waited several days to deliver nearly 100 poll books to Wayne County officials charged with certifying the presidential election, newly released documents show.
County clerk officials on Thursday released a memo to State Elections Director Chris Thomas that said 95 poll books from the 662 precincts weren’t available at the start of the canvass, which began the day after the Nov. 8 election. Five of those poll books, which contain the names of voters and ensure the integrity of elections, were never delivered to county canvassers and presumably remain missing.
The revelation comes atop other irregularities that have prompted a state audit. Among other issues, The Detroit News reported this week that voting machines registered more votes than they should have in one-third of all city precincts.
“I’m not happy with how Detroit handled this election at all,” said Krista Hartounian, chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, which certified the election.
“We had been seeing improvement, but this one was different. This one was off.”
Meanwhile, many of the precincts that actually did deliver their poll books in a timely fashion breached official state laws by either not delivering them in sealed envelopes and/or omitting "seal numbers from ballot boxes."
