Election glitch in Michigan county by accident palms Democrat a win, flipping it to Republican as soon as fastened

Michigan’s Oakland County has found a pc glitch that erroneously gave a victory to a Democratic candidate for commissioner. Her rival is respiration a sigh of aid, and worrying about the place else such errors lurk.

Democratic candidate for county commissioner Melanie Hartman appeared to have gained the election on Wednesday by a razor-thin 104-vote margin, based on Detroit Free Press. Nevertheless, red-faced county officers have revealed that a pc glitch led them to really rely votes for seven precincts twice, and the Republican incumbent Adam Kochenderfer was declared the winner on Friday.

Additionally on rt.com

When the votes had been counted appropriately, Kochenderfer got here out forward by a snug 1,127 votes, 51.67 p.c of the entire. Whereas the relieved winner mentioned he was “grateful to the officers who caught the error,” he expressed concern different errors won’t be caught so shortly.

“We have to make sure that we catch these points, or stop them solely,” he advised native media. Kochenderfer had already accepted his defeat, although he was shocked to be (nonetheless briefly) ousted in a district lengthy thought-about a Republican stronghold, and had not been planning to hunt a recount.

The error was blamed on “a pc difficulty” on the metropolis clerk’s workplace in Rochester Hills, in Oakland County’s 15th District. Absentee votes for the seven precincts had been counted twice, as in-person and absentee, County Elections Director Joe Rozell defined.

Michigan is certainly one of six states the place President Donald Trump has challenged vote totals in an effort to uncover what he insists is widespread voter fraud. The state was known as for Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Wednesday, apparently flipping ‘blue’ after Trump gained it by a slight margin in a 2016 upset. It’s not clear from reviews if the Oakland County laptop error additionally affected presidential ballots; nonetheless, present figures give the Democrat a snug margin of victory.

Additionally on rt.com

The Trump marketing campaign has additionally filed or joined lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona and demanded a recount in Wisconsin. Georgia’s secretary of state introduced on Friday recount could be carried out there. Based on calculations from the Related Press, Biden seems to be on monitor to win the presidency with 264 of the required 270 electoral votes, as only one victory within the states that haven’t but been known as would put him over the road.

If you happen to like this story, share it with a pal!