‘No Good Direction’: County Hand-Counts Ballots, Likely Illegally

DETROIT, MI — A lawsuit alleging problems with unofficial November 2020 presidential election results prompted officials in a northern Michigan county to go ahead with changes that its top election official says are probably against the law.

Here’s what happened in November, according to Michigan Public Radio: Initial results in Antrim County skewed toward Joe Biden, an improbability in the reliably Republican county, and an investigation showed it occurred because of human error in setting updates, not a software issue as originally believed.

Now, MPR reported, the county board of commissioners denied spending to get the voting machines ready for an election in May. That means the ballots will have to be hand-counted.

“It could become quite cumbersome, but, given our circumstances, it felt like our options were pretty limited,” county Commissioner Ed Boettcher said. “There weren’t — there wasn’t a good — there wasn’t good direction to head. We’re heading in what I feel is the best one possible.” » Read the full story on MichiganRadio.org

$4M Lottery Winner Claims Ticket

A 63-year-old Oakland County woman who has been crunching the numbers with her husband to see if they have enough cushion to retire says she now knows they’ll be OK. She took a $2.5 million payout on a $4 million prize in the Michigan Lottery’s $150 Million CA$H Explosion instant game, according to a news release.

“I scratched the ticket off once I got to my car,” said the woman, who bought the ticket at Sherwood Liquor Shoppe in Milford. “I took my time scratching the numbers, and all I could say after seeing the ‘4 MIL’ symbol was: ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” » Read the full Michigan Lottery news release.

Metro Detroit Headlines

• Drugging Allegations At Birmingham Bar: A swanky Birmingham bar is defending itself against allegations customers made on social media claiming they were drugged or served spiked drinks, via Detroit Free Press.
• Ford Field Vaccine Site Need-To-Know: News station WXYZ has a one-stop portal for everything you need to know about the mass vaccine clinic that opened Wednesday.
• Tiki Boats Dock Out Of Wyandotte: Aloha Tiki Tours, which operates from Detroit and St. Clair Shores, is adding the downriver community as its third location for the boats that can hold up to six people, via WXYZ.
• Sitting Comfortably On Ford’s Latest Find: Cow hides worth $100,000 found as demolition continues at Ford’s former Product Development in Dearborn were destined for premium leather seats, via the Detroit Free Press.
• Driver In Fatal Crash Had 0.345 BAC: The driver in a fatal crash that killed an Arenac County man in February faces multiple charges, including those related to driving with a blood alcohol content more than four times the legal limit, via MLive.com.

“The problem is when you look at some of those documents that were scattered around that room. Those documents have some of the most sensitive personally identifiable information on people. The birth certificate not only has the information from the person whose birth certificate it is, but it also has the parents’ information on it.”

— Forensic expert Scott Bailey to news station WDIV on the discovery of abandoned personal files inside the former Murphy Academy in Detroit

SPORTS TALK: A referee in Tuesday’s Detroit Red Wings-Nashville Predators game was banned for life from officiating NHL games. Tim Peel is one of the NHL’s most maligned officials among fans, ESPN reported, but what got him in a hot seat was a hot mic comment when he called a penalty on Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson for tripping Red Wings defenseman Jon Merrill. The broadcast from Nashville picked up Peel saying, “it wasn’t much, but I wanted to get a f-----g penalty against Nashville early.”

WEATHER IN A WORD: Wet.

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