County Clerk prepares for presidential ballot recount

MARQUETTE — Recounting ballots. That’s what county clerks across the state are doing or are preparing to do, thanks to the efforts of Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein.

By time it’s all said and done, over four million presidential ballots will be recounted here in Michigan. Marquette County will recount their ballots on Friday.

Clerk Linda Talsma has a plan in place to recount the approximately 30,000 ballots in one day. If everything goes according to plan, the nearly $5,000 coming from Jill Stein to conduct the recount will cover all of the costs associated with the process.

“I will be having my staff participate in the statewide recount. We already have them on my payroll, so I’m going to try and save a little money there,” said Talsma. “What I’m using also is local clerks. I’m recruiting local clerks, township, city clerks, their deputies; I’m trying to keep this to go as smoothly as possible.”

Talsma plans to have twelve tables setup Friday at the Citizens Forum inside Lakeview Arena. Each table will hand count between 2,000-3,000 ballots.

To help with the process, the county clerk’s office will be closed on Friday. Like Michigan, the State of Wisconsin is also currently conducting a recount.