John Wisely, Kathleen Gray, Frank Witsil, Bill Laitner, and Eric D. Lawrence

Detroit Free Press

The recount of the Michigan's 2016 presidential election expanded across the state Tuesday and continued to uncover problems that made dozens of precincts ineligible for recount under state law.

At issue are discrepancies between the number of voters who cast ballots and the number of ballots found in the ballot box on election night.

In Wayne County, officials must decide what to do with 610 precincts, including 392 in Detroit, where the numbers don't match. Oakland County has concluded that at least 17 precincts can't be recounted and in Macomb, at least seven are ineligible.

What that means is the election night returns will stand (for those precincts)," Chis Thomas, director of elections for the state of Michigan.

Here's a look at the first full day of recounting in Michigan.

Wayne County

The recount got under way just before 10:40 a.m. when Wayne County Elections Director Delphine Oden cut the band sealing one of the containers holding ballots and piled several stacks on one of the many tables set up for the recount inside Cobo Center.

Wayne County officials were continuing to input recount results just before 9 p.m. Tuesday. The county had more than 802,000 ballots to recount -- and the Michigan Secretary of State's Office has made a request to other county clerks to send assistance to Wayne County, according to Jina Sawani, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Clerk's Office.

Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, said the office is "looking at what resources we have to assist Wayne County."

However, he noted in a text that "we are seeking clarity on the court action today so that could affect what is needed."

Seventy-five teams of recounters and observers representing the various candidates sat at the tables in two different rooms. As the ballots were counted, they were placed in piles representing the presidential candidates.

Hundreds of precincts in Wayne County, however, may not be recountable based on a countywide canvass last month. Election Day results will be used for those precincts that cannot be recounted. Detroit lawmakers were outraged by the polling problems.

“I am appalled that so many precincts will be disqualified from a recount. With the discrepancies and machine malfunctions that took place, there is even further justification to make examination of those precincts a priority during the recount, not the opposite,” Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, said in a statement. “I am extremely concerned that thousands of Detroit voters’ voices will not be heard during the recount process.”

Thomas noted that the voters were counted once.

"It doesn't mean that no votes will be counted but that the numbers that were reported on election night and canvassed by the board of canvassers two weeks after, those numbers will remain the numbers."

Oakland County

The recount began at 9 a.m. and continued throughout the day at the Oakland Intermediate Schools conference center in Waterford. By midday, 198 of the county's 520 precincts had been recounted, elections director Joe Rozell said.

"Things are moving along nicely," Rozell said. "Our teams are moving at the pace we expected and we are on target to finish as planned."

Rozell said Oakland had found 17 precincts that could not be recounted, including seven in Pontiac, one-third of that city's total. Four of Southfield's precincts couldn't be recounted.

Both of those cities were strongholds for Hillary Clinton. She won 87% of the votes in Southfield and 82% in Pontiac, according to election results posted on the county website.

“If it doesn’t match, and there’s no explanation why it doesn’t match, then that precinct would not be counted," Rozell said. "The election night results – the certified results – would stand. That just means that we can’t recount those ballots. They are resealed in the container."

Two precincts in Rochester Hills also couldn't be recounted. Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in that city 50% to 44%.

Most of the recounted precincts matched the original count. When numbers did change, they were typically by one or two votes. Clinton picked up three votes on the recount of Pontiac's 14th Precinct and Trump's biggest gain came in Rochester Hills Precinct 3, where he added 11 votes.

Macomb County

The recount began at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, and by the end of the day both Trump and Clinton had gained votes.

At the end of the day in Warren, Clinton gained 36 votes to her original 176,317, and Trump added 13 to his original 224,665 votes.

The gains came after recounters found several ballots with markings that were too faint for the machines to read on Election Day but could be spotted by the humans conducting the recount.

By 7:21 p.m., the Macomb County recounters had tallied 64,060 ballots.

During the recount, scores of Trump, Clinton and Jill Stein observers fanned out across 30 tables of election workers scrutinizing ballots.

"Everyone is working as quickly as possible, but accuracy is more important than speed," said Macomb County Chief Deputy Clerk Todd Schmitz. "The recount is a great opportunity to build confidence in our election system and to showcase the professionalism of Macomb County’s county and municipal election workers."

As of 4 p.m., seven precincts could not be recounted -- six in Warren and one in Sterling Heights -- totaling 4,737 votes, according to a Free Press tabulation.

Macomb officials said they wanted to emphasize that each of those votes had been counted in election night tallies.

"They just can't be recounted now," Schmitz said.

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com