With the nation’s collective attention now turned to claims that Russian provocateurs played a hand in influencing the results of last month’s presidential campaign in favor of Republican Donald Trump, the three state recount that dominated headlines last week has been all but forgotten.

Launched by former Green Party candidate Jill Stein — after having raised millions in donations from the public — the statewide recounts in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and here in Michigan have all fizzled out. Trump widened his margin of victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton following the effort in Wisconsin, while court orders stopped similar processes in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

As one would expect during this bitterly divisive election cycle, there are plenty of opinions about the validity of the recounts — with many Republicans casting them as shameless ploys for money and attention and many Democrats saying they were a necessary precaution to ensure the sanctity of our democratic process.

We generally side with the former thought in this case. Stein only received about 1 percent of the vote in all three states she was contesting, and while Trump won the former Democrat strongholds by fairly narrow margins, there was nothing to suggest widespread vote tampering causing the flip.

That said, we cannot completely condemn the recounts as a waste of time or money either — or at least here in Michigan.

In the three days the recount was under way before the state shut it down, election officials across the state encountered a legion of problems with the process.

Thousands of ballots could not be recounted during the process due to state regulations. Such problems included precincts having ballot totals that did not match those recorded by tabulation machines on Election Day or ballot boxes being improperly sealed — in one case, election officials discovered a box sealed using duct tape.

In Berrien and Cass counties, 12 precincts were deemed “not recountable,” according to unofficial results by the Michigan Secretary of State office.

Who knows what else the process could have revealed should it have been completed?

There are clearly issues here in Michigan on how elections are handled which can and should be addressed before the next election. Whether that means using newer voting equipment or training local election officials better, change needs to come, and come quickly.

As we have said in numerous editorials, voting is one of our most important rights as Americans. It is paramount that every effort be made to ensure that when we exercise that right, it matters.

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of General Manager Ambrosia Neldon and community editors Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.