John Wisely, Joe Guillen and Christina Hall

Detroit Free Press

County clerks are preparing to recount, by hand, the 2016 presidential election and do it by Dec. 12.

In Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, that means nailing down a central location to perform the recount in each county and finding enough workers to carry out the tedious task of going over hundreds of thousands of ballots one at a time.

► Related: Board of Canvassers certifies Trump victory in Michigan

► Related:Michigan presidential recount? Here's what we know

► Related:Official says Trump could object to Michigan recount request

“This is a monumental undertaking,” said Joe Rozell, director of elections in Oakland County, where 678,090 ballots must be reviewed one-by-one. “We’ve never had a countywide recount of this magnitude.”

The window for a possible statewide recount opened on Monday when the Michigan Board of Canvassers certified the state's presidential election results, which showed Republican nominee Donald Trump won the state by 10,704 votes. Green Party candidate Jill Stein has indicated she will request a recount in Michigan by Wednesday's deadline.

A recount would begin on Friday in the state's 19 largest counties, which includes Oakland, Wayne and Macomb.

Rozell spent the day trying to find a building in Oakland County large enough to accommodate the counting of 1,025 steel boxes of ballots that come from precincts and absentee ballot counting stations. He estimates that counters will need between 17,000 and 20,000 square feet of space to do their work.

The Oakland Intermediate School District has agreed to give the county clerk’s office use of its conference center, located across Telegraph Road from the clerk’s office, Rozell said.

Macomb County Chief Elections Clerk Roger Cardamone said county officials are in the process of securing a location -- hopefully at Macomb Community College -- and staff for the recount of 424,679 ballots. He said the county is prepared to pay to rent the facility.

Jina Sawani, spokeswoman for Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett did not provide answers to an e-mail with questions about recount preparations. "We have nothing to report, as we are still awaiting word from the state," Sawani wrote in a text. She later confirmed the county is looking for a location and workers for a recount. In Wayne County, 782,719 votes were cast for president.

Ballots in all counties will be recounted by bipartisan two-person teams.

When precinct ballot boxes are delivered for the recount, ballot counters will first check to see that the seal on the boxes matches those in a corresponding poll book, then open them, Rozell said. The two-person team, one Democrat and one Republican, will examine each ballot and place it in an appropriate pile. There will be six piles for the candidates whose names appeared on the ballot and a seventh pile labeled “other” for write-in candidates, blank ballots and over-voted ballots, where more than one name was marked, Rozell said.

When the sorting is done, the counters will then count each pile and log the results.

The entire process will be supervised by the state, the county board of canvassers and lawyers and others representing the various campaigns.

To cover the cost, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, as the person requesting the recount, will have to pay $125 per precinct – 6,300 in Michigan – for a cost of $787,500. If costs go beyond that amount, the county responsible for the higher costs will get the bill.'

Stein's campaign will pick up the cost for the 782,719 ballots cast in Wayne County. Rozell said the $125 per precinct cost won’t cover the full cost in Oakland County's 678,090 votes. The clerk’s office will make budget adjustments to cover the added cost.

Poll workers who worked the election are barred by law from participating in a recount of the precinct where they worked. Rozell said they’ll be assigned to other precincts.

Rozell said he expects to need about 175 people to conduct the recount and because the work must be done by Dec. 12, he anticipates working 10 to 12-hour days, including weekends, to complete the work. The workers likely will be paid about $150 per day, similar to what they were paid for working the election.

Macomb County Clerk/Register of Deeds Carmella Sabaugh said her office will be ready for a recount, with the elections department working on acquiring space and personnel, adding "it'll require quite a few people to help with the process."

The Macomb County elections department has been reaching out to city and township clerks in the county for assistance, looking for "any staff they can spare; their election inspectors, who are familiar with ballots and markings," said Cardamone, Macomb's chief elections clerk.

"We will be utilizing election inspectors very heavily for the recount," he said.

The office is planning on 30, two-person teams, or 60 people, per day. The cost for staffing will be at least $6,000 per day, Cardamone said.

He said the county board of canvassers will need to be present, and officials are working out logistics as simple as having enough supplies, such as rubber finger tips and pens.

Cardamone said county elections officials will talk with the local clerks about getting ballots delivered and will have to arrange for security of the ballots, reaching out to the sheriff's office for that security.

While the county elections office has handled plenty of recounts, Cardamone said, it hasn't organized one "quite this size this quickly."