TheCable

Election officials in the US state of Michigan have been ordered by a federal judge to begin massive hand recount of the nearly five million ballots cast in the presidential election.

On Monday, Mark Goldsmith, US district judge, issued a ruling instructing state authorities to start the recount at noon in order to meet a December 13 deadline to certify the vote.

The ruling marked a win for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has led quixotic recount efforts in Michigan and two other industrial Midwestern states, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The left-wing candidate, who won 1 per cent of the vote nationally, has claimed that some voting machines used in states were vulnerable to hacking and could have been manipulated.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had been expected to win to the three states but lost to Republican Donald Trump in the November 8 election.

Flipping them from Trump to Clinton would swing enough electoral votes to change the outcome of the November 8 elections.