Kathleen Gray and Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — Green Party candidate Jill Stein is in line for a big check from the state of Michigan after the recount she requested was stopped by a federal judge and the state Board of Canvassers after only three days of counting ballots.

Under state law, Stein had to pay $125 per precinct — or $973,250 — to count Michigan’s 7,786 in-person and absentee voting precincts. That check was delivered to state officials when she requested the recount last week.

Now, with only a fraction of the recount completed, Michigan’s Secretary of State is prepared to refund a portion of that amount, said Fred Woodhams, spokesman for Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. Stein will have to pay for the precincts in Michigan that were counted, but she will not be charged for the precincts that couldn’t be counted because of problems with the ballot containers.

When the recount was stopped Wednesday after a ruling from U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, 26 counties had started counting their ballots.

Margy Levinson, a Stein campaign spokesperson, said the campaign wants some of its money back from the state.

"In the event that the Supreme Court fails to act, we expect (part) of the $970,000 filing fee to be returned to the campaign,” she said, noting the campaign will cover the recounts that did occur.

Federal judge halts Michigan election recount

A full tally of how many precincts have been counted in those 26 counties was not available from the state Thursday, but in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Ingham counties, 1,364 precincts had been counted by the end of Wednesday for a grand total of $170,500 for counting done in four of Michigan’s biggest counties.

Ingham County is the only one of Michigan’s 83 counties that was done with its recount of 115 precincts and six that couldn’t be counted because ballot containers were improperly sealed. Oakland finished 667 out of 1,025 precincts with 35 precincts unable to be recounted. Macomb finished 171 of 670 precincts with 14 not recountable and Wayne counted 411 of 1,680 precincts, but couldn’t recount 128 precincts because of mistakes.

“That’s fair, that we pay the fee for the ones that were counted,” said Stein’s attorney, Mark Brewer. “The law provides that for the precincts that were unrecountable, that she should get a refund.”

But Margy Levinson, a Stein campaign spokeswoman, said the campaign wants the full amount back from the state.

"In the event that the Supreme Court fails to act, we expect the $970,000 filing fee to be returned to the campaign,” she said.

Most states would recount Mich.'s mismatched ballots

The fate of Stein's recount fight is now in the hands of the Michigan Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a decision on whether it will hear Stein's argument. Stein is appealing a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that said she didn't have standing to request a recount because she never stood a chance to win the presidency with her fourth-place finish and 1.07% of the vote. That ruling triggered Wednesday's decision by a federal judge, who upheld the state court's finding and concluded there was no real evidence of foul play and no valid reason to continue the recount.

David Cobb, another campaign spokesman, said that plenty of problems showed up in the recount, especially with all the unrecountable ballots.

“What we’re seeing is a national disgrace. We see that in Detroit, half of the votes were ineligible to recount because of antiquated state laws,” he said. “Just as we were gearing up to discover something wrong going on, the court stopped us.”

Whatever the refund is, it will go toward paying for the ongoing recount battles in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Cobb said. There isn’t expected to be much left over from the nearly $7 million raised from 150,000 donors, he added, because Wisconsin upped its recount cost from $1.1 million to $3.5 million.

If there is money left over after the recounts and legal battles are done, Cobb said, the donors will be asked how to use any excess funds with a goal of supporting efforts to uphold election integrity.

Despite dueling court rulings, Mich. recount continues

Stein's recount request questions Michigan’s aging voting system and the 75,000 ballots in Michigan in which voters picked nobody for president. That's almost twice as many blank presidential ballots than were cast in 2012. In Michigan, President-elect Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 10,704 votes.

But the Michigan Republican Party, Trump and the Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette have fought Stein's efforts on a number of fronts, arguing she had no standing to seek a recount that would cost Michigan taxpayers an estimated $5 million, that there was no proof but rather made-up fears of fraud or hacking, and that she was abusing the state's recount law. Specifically, they argued, Michigan's recount law was meant to change the outcome of an election for a truly aggrieved candidate, not to audit a state's election process.

Stein's lawyers have argued that the recount must continue, stressing that it has shown numerous voting problems across the state, particularly in Detroit, where more than half of the precincts' ballots cannot be recounted because of problems with how the ballots were accounted for or how ballot containers were sealed. They also argued that Stein is an aggrieved party if she participated in an election that was plagued with mistakes or fraud — even if she didn't stand to win.

Under Michigan bill, Jill Stein could foot recount tab

Betting on the Michigan Supreme Court, which has a Republican majority, is a long shot, Brewer acknowledged.

“I hope to hear from the Supreme Court, but it’s discretionary on whether they take the case,” he said. “Our time runs out early next week. We’ve agreed all along that the recount needs to be done by Dec. 13.”

The recount controversy started last Friday, when the Michigan Board of Canvassers deadlocked 2-2 on Trump's objection to Stein's request for a recount, which allowed the hand recount to move forward. Then came an order from U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who issued a restraining order against the state to block it from trying to stop the recount. He ordered the recount to begin Monday so that it would end by Dec.13 to meet the deadline for certifying the Electoral College, which votes Dec. 19.

Contributing: John Wisely and Chris Hall, Detroit Free Press. Follow Kathleen Gray and Tresa Baldas on Twitter: @michpoligal and @TBaldas