Michigan board deadlocks, removes recount hurdle
Michigan's elections board has deadlocked on President-elect Donald Trump's request to prevent a recount, which means it will start next week unless the courts intervene.
Two Republicans voted Friday to prevent the recount, while two Democrats said it should proceed. A state spokesman says the statewide recount requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein will begin Tuesday or Wednesday barring a court order.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to intervene and stop the recount. That motion is pending.
A Wisconsin recount is underway, though his supporters have filed a federal lawsuit trying to stop in. In Pennsylvania, Trump is asking a court to dismiss Stein's recount request.
Trump, PA Republicans ask for recount dismissal
Trump's margin of victory in Pennsylvania is shrinking as more counties finish tallying their votes.
An updated count Friday by state election officials shows Trump's lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton has shrunk to 49,000, from 71,000.
That puts Trump's lead at 0.8 percent, down from over 1 percent, out of 6 million votes cast. It's still shy of Pennsylvania's 0.5 percent trigger for an automatic statewide recount. Trump's Pennsylvania victory was crucial to his capturing the White House.
Trump's lead in Pennsylvania dropped as counties wrapped up the counting of overseas ballots and settled provisional ballot challenges.
Some counties are also fielding precinct recount requests, and final counts are outstanding in some places, including Philadelphia.
Trump and the Pennsylvania Republican Party have asked a court to dismiss the Green Party-backed request for a recount of the state's presidential election vote.
In a filing late Thursday, Republican lawyers accused Stein of legal antics that threaten Pennsylvania's ability to certify its presidential electors by the Dec. 13 federal deadline.
A Monday court hearing is scheduled in the case.
The GOP argues there's no evidence or even allegations that the state's voting systems were tampered with and that the law doesn't specifically allow a court-ordered recount.
Trump supporters try to stop Wisconsin recount
A federal court in Wisconsin on Friday rejected an attempt by pro-Trump groups to stop a recount of the state's presidential vote, saying there was no harm in allowing it to continue.
Two pro-Trump political action committees and a Wisconsin voter on Thursday filed a lawsuit and a request for a temporary restraining order seeking to stop the recount, arguing that it was an unconstitutional violation of the Constitutional rights of people who had voted for Trump.
The lawsuit was filed by the Great America PAC, the Stop Hillary PAC and Wisconsin voter Ronald R. Johnson. The lawsuit contends that the recount that started Thursday threatens the due process rights of Johnson and others who voted for Trump. Trump won Wisconsin and the recount was requested by Stein.
The lawsuit also argued that errors are likely in the recount, as election officials are rushing to meet a Dec. 13 deadline.
But U.S. District Judge James Peterson on Friday denied the motion to temporarily halt the recount, saying there would be no harm in allowing it to proceed while the state prepares arguments in defense.
Peterson scheduled a hearing for Dec. 9 on the underlying lawsuit.