Final Election Results 2016: Michigan Election Recount Halted, Jill Stein Likely To Appeal Ruling

A federal judge ordered Michigan's Board of Elections on Wednesday to stop the state's electoral recount after a state court ruling found Green Party candidate Jill Stein had no legal standing to request recount of votes. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith said "there is no basis" for him to ignore the state court ruling that said the recount should never have started.

Stein’s campaign condemned the judgment and promised to challenge the Michigan Court of Appeals decision. Republicans have argued that the three-day recount must end as the state appeals court found that Stein, who finished fourth in Michigan on Nov. 8, did not have a chance of winning even after a recount and therefore is not an "aggrieved" candidate.

“We are not backing down from this fight ― a fight to protect the hard-fought, hard-won civil and voting rights of all Americans. Our campaign will seek immediate relief in Michigan’s Supreme Court to ensure the recount that is already underway in all Michigan counties continues,” Hayley Horowitz and Jessica Clarke, the Stein campaign’s lead lawyers in Michigan, said in a statement. “With so many irregularities in Michigan ― including more than 75,000 under-votes, many in urban areas, and widespread carelessness, and perhaps interference, with preserving ballots ― there is a real possibility the rights of voters in Michigan may have been suppressed during this election."

John Bursch, attorney for Michigan’s Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette, who had challenged Stein’s case for a recount, praised Goldsmith’s decision.

“This ruling is a huge victory for Michigan taxpayers and the rule of law,” Bursch reportedly said in a statement.

State Republican Party Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel reportedly said: "Jill Stein, who received only 1.07% of the vote in Michigan, is not legally entitled to hijack the will of voters and drag them into an arduous and expensive publicity stunt."

Early Monday morning, Goldsmith ordered the recount to begin by noon that day, with the intention of enabling the state to complete the recount by Dec. 13, the deadline needed to allow for sufficient time before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 19. In Michigan, Trump defeated Clinton by 10,704 votes.

"Because there is no basis for this court to ignore the Michigan court's ruling and make an independent judgment regarding what the Michigan Legislature intended by the term 'aggrieved,' plaintiffs have not shown an entitlement to a recount," Goldsmith said in his statement Wednesday.

Stein had requested for a vote recount in three states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — where Trump narrowly won. A court hearing will be held Friday on a possible recount in Pennsylvania.