Michigan seems to have become one of the biggest talking points of this US Presidential Election. After President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit alleging voter fraud and appealing to halt counting in Michigan, Republicans now have claimed that a technical glitch incorrectly gave 6,000 votes to Democrat nominee Joe Biden.
The news started creating ripples immediately but the software glitch was soon detected by election officials who corrected it, giving Trump a 2,000 vote lead in Michigan. The glitch occurred at Michigan's Antrim County on November 4 after results showed that the Democratic Party's candidate had won the historically Republican-leaning county.
Unexpected Glitch
Doubts were raised after the county first reported a landslide for Biden. Michigan is historically a Republican-leaning county and the results came in as a surprise. Initial reports were that Biden had won by around 16,000 votes which not only was unacceptable but also shocked Trump supporters.
However, officials soon acknowledged that there might be a glitch and started recounting the votes. It was soon found out that a software glitch erroneously gave 6,000 votes to Biden. "It certainly makes a lot more sense with people who are familiar with Antrim County," said Jeremy Scott, deputy county administrator.
It wasn't a full recount of every ballot but results that were spit out by vote machines were tallied again, with Trump winning in the end. However, this change did not impact the overall result in the state where Trump is currently trailing in the state by 1.47 lakh votes with less than 2 percent counting remaining.
Investigation Launched
Although the error was rectified immediately, the news initially created chaos. According to Scott, election official are verifying with the company that proves them the software and hardware to determine what exactly happened. Besides Antrim County, 47 other counties also use the software.
Michigan GOP Chairwoman Laura Cox advocated for the counties to 'closely examine' the results of the election to see if there were any other discrepancies. In 2016, Trump won Antrim County with about 62 percent of the vote, compared with about 33 percent for Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump beat Clinton by about 4,000 votes.
That said, in another development in Michigan, Judge Cynthia Stephens recently ruled against the Trump campaign's push to stop the count in order to gain additional access for its observers. 'I have no basis to find that there is a substantial likelihood of success on the merits,' she said.
