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Michigan Presidential Ballot Recount Ended by Court Ruling

  • Federal judge reverses himself after earlier allowing recount
  • State court said Green Party’s Jill Stein isn’t ‘aggrieved’
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein leaves after speaking at a news conference on Fifth Avenue across the street from Trump Tower on Dec. 5, 2016, in New York City.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein leaves after speaking at a news conference on Fifth Avenue across the street from Trump Tower on Dec. 5, 2016, in New York City.

Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Updated on

A recount of presidential election ballots in Michigan was effectively halted after a federal judge deferred to a state court finding that losing Green Party candidate Jill Stein wasn’t an "aggrieved person."

U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith in Detroit ruled Monday that the recount could proceed, then reversed himself Wednesday after Republican backers of President-elect Donald Trump persuaded a state appeals panel that Stein wasn’t qualified to initiate the process because she had no chance of winning the election.