Presidential election recount set to start

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has delivered $3.5 million to the state of Wisconsin to guarantee a recount of the presidential vote there.

“After a presidential election tarnished by the use of outdated and unreliable machines and accusations of irregularities, people of all political persuasions are asking if our election results are reliable”, Stein said Wednesday of the MI recount.

Also Monday, Stein filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania to force a recount, and her supporters began filing recount requests at the precinct level.

Under laws passed in MI in 2014, recounts are costly for the people requesting them. “Additionally, the campaign filed a legal petition in state court today on behalf of 100 Pennsylvania voters to protect their right to substantively contest the election in Pennsylvania beyond the recounts being filed by voters at the precinct level”.

Wisconsin state law says that it will be up to the individual counties to decide how they will handle the recount. All ballots would be counted by hand in each county, with state elections officials supervising the process each step of the way. “I request that all of the precincts and absent voter counting board precincts within the state of MI be recounted by hand count”.

That result remains highly unlikely, as the Democrat would need to overcome Trump’s winning margins in all three states to wrest the Electoral College majority from him.

Donald Trump leads the Electoral College count.

Mark Thomsen, the Elections Commission chairman, said he does not doubt President-elect Donald TrumpDonald TrumpCotton says he trusts Trump on promise to focus on presidency Sanders: Carrier took Trump hostage and won Trump must deliver on his infrastructure promises MORE will win the recount. Trump has dismissed Stein’s fundraising as a scam.

Still, Wisconsin officials on Monday prepared to launch a recount of the state’s more than 25 million votes, following Stein’s request last week, a move that was joined by Clinton’s lawyers.

“We simply won’t know if there was hacking or interference in this election unless we look at the votes – every vote systematically, impartially and by hand”, Jessica Clarke, a lawyer for the Stein campaign, said during a news conference in MI. The big deadline is December 19 when all of the states’ electors must meet to cast their Electoral College votes.

According to several investigators and scientists, voting data in the three states show “statistical anomalies”, especially in counties where electronic voting machines without paper backup systems are used.

Stein said she’s not requesting the recount because she thinks it will change the outcome.