A federal judge has ordered Michigan election officials to begin a massive hand recount of 4.8 million ballots cast in the presidential election at noon Monday.U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith issued a ruling just after midnight Monday in favor of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who sought to let election officials bypass a two-business-day waiting period that would have delayed start of the recount until Wednesday morning.The manual recount process was scheduled to begin Wednesday as specified by state law, and in a rare Sunday hearing in federal court, Goldsmith questioned the harm posed by waiting.Stein s lawyer Mark Brewer argued the case was aimed at ensuring the integrity of Michigan s voting system and that the required waiting period violated Stein s rights to due process and equal protection. He pushed for the recount of 4.8 million ballots to start immediately, which he said would be Monday morning. There are questions raised throughout the country about the integrity of the election system,  Brewer told the judge in front of a courtroom filled with about two dozen people, including state Republican Party Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel.  It s not just rhetoric. The hearing ended Sunday afternoon, with a staffer for the judge saying Goldsmith would issue a written opinion but he did not give a timeline.The deadline to finalize the vote total for the Electoral College is Dec. 13. Chris Thomas, the state elections director, testified Sunday that he could not guarantee that the recount could be finished by that deadline, calling the task  doable but difficult.  Brewer called it  highly doubtful  that the state could finish by the deadline, and asserted the recount needed to start immediately.Read more: Detroit News