Why a tiny Northern Michigan county pulled its election results

Northern Michigan's Antrim County became a center of election intrigue election hot spot by declining to release its unofficial results Wednesday morning as county officials reviewed a "discrepancy" in the numbers, said Micki Hocking, the county's deputy clerk.

In 2016, the county of about 23,000 residents voted 62% to 33% for Republican Donald Trump. That was about 8,469 votes for the Republican. However, on Wednesday, Republicans on social media were sharing images of unofficial results out of the county that showed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden winning the county with 62% support.

“We are hoping to know by this afternoon," Hocking said.

The deputy clerk said there was a discrepancy between the results reported to the county and the reported election results.

"We are working to a solution to that. And we are working with our computer programming," Hocking said.

The discrepancy is important because Trump trails Biden in Michigan. The Democratic former vice president led the Republican president 49.7%-48.8% with 95% of precincts reporting Wednesday afternoon — a difference of about 45,000 votes.

cmauger@detroitnews.com