The estimated cost of recounting all the votes in Michigan’s presidential election continues to rise. State officials plan to charge Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein almost $1 million to conduct the recount. But Secretary of State Ruth Johnson guessed as much as $2 million. Republican Party attorney Eric Doster thinks it will be closer to the $10 million cost of running a statewide election.
“I can’t imagine the cost could be any less for a statewide recount than a statewide election,” he said. “And that’s a one-day event, a statewide election. This is going to go a lot longer than one day, folks.”
Any cost above what the state charges the Stein campaign would have to be picked up by taxpayers.
“This recount is a ridiculous waste of time and resources,” said Michigan Republican Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel. She called on Stein to give up on the Michigan recount.
The Stein campaign says it still intends to file for the recount before the deadline tomorrow afternoon. If the recount is not blocked by challenges, elections officials could begin the task of hand counting more than 4 million ballots as soon as Friday.
