The SMART bus tax opponent, Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, withdrew its request for a recount of the vote after initial recount results showed the measure's razor-thin margin of approval was unlikely to be reversed.

“With only 25% of the recount left, it was clear the previously certified election results would not be reversed," Simon Haddad, MTA's vice chair, said in a statement Thursday. "Given how incredibly close this tax vote was, voters deserved a recount to make sure the initial results were correct."

The activist group had requested a recount of the suburban bus system ballot question that was up for a vote earlier this month.

Haddad of Clinton Township was a named petitioner on the request.

The SMART ballot question passed by only 39 votes in Macomb County after the election was certified on Friday. The vote initially passed by 23 votes in unofficial totals just after the Aug. 7 election. The vote total in Macomb County was 77,500 in favor and 77,461 against for a 1-mill tax renewal for four years.

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If the measure had failed in Macomb County, it would have meant a wind-down of service in the county.

The measure passed in Wayne and Oakland counties.

The MTA had argued that the margin of victory was so razor thin that the ballots should be recounted. But, after 75% of the recount has been completed, the vote totals had changed by only three votes and the group conceded its challenge, but not its objections to the bus system.

"The problem with SMART is they have among the lowest 'fare box recovery' of any mass transit system in the nation," Haddad said. "Taxpayers pay 90% of SMART's costs and riders pay only 10%. SMART seems to think the problem is just getting more riders by lowering fares at any cost to taxpayers."

Free Press archives contributed. Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.