Election Recount Called for in Three States

By Dan Gagnon; For The Clock

On December 2, 2016

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Election Recount Called for in Three States

Dan Gannon

For The Clock

drgannon@plymouth.edu

Green Party Candidate, Jill Stein, called for an election recount in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania last week, but was stalled after Wisconsin decided to not go through with the recount by hand.

This led to Wisconsin being sued by the Green Party, which has led to Wisconsin agreeing to begin the recount as early as Dec. 1, as long as Stein can raise the estimated $3.5 million to recount the ballots by Nov. 29, official’s said.

Stein also filed a lawsuit on Monday against the sate of Pennsylvania to urge them to recount their ballots. She also urged Michigan to recount their votes as well. All three states were officially declared won by President-Elect Donald Trump.

Her main focus has been on Wisconsin though. To first have the ballots recounted by hand in Wisconsin, the Green Party leader must win a lawsuit in the Dane County Circuit Court.

Even from there, representatives from Wisconsin’s 72 counties would make the call on their own if they want to count the ballots by hand. Official estimates put 2.98 million people that voted in the state by machine or by hand. This grueling task of recounting the votes would more than likely be done by hand.

The Clinton campaign, which originally gave a concession speech once they learned that Trump had won Pennsylvania, said originally they had no plans to call for a recount. Now, by the efforts of Jill Stein, the campaign said that they would be involved if the recount goes through. Many Democrats are wary that the recount will change anything. Elections Commissioner chairman, Mark Thomsen, who is a Democrat, believes that President-Elect Trump will keep his Presidential status even with a recount. "It may not be 22,177," Thomsen remarked, referring to Trump's win over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the vote count. "But I don’t doubt that the president-elect is going to win that."

He would go on to denounce the speculation that the voting machines or system may have been hacked by an outside source, or voter fraud may have occurred. President-Elect Trump also called the attempted recount, “an insult to people who run our elections.” He took to Twitter to add his own personal thoughts saying, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Trump also attacked Jill Stein in a statement remarking, “This is a scam by the Green Party and Jill Stein for an election that has already been conceded. The result of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused." Stein fired back by saying "We must recount the votes so we can build trust in our election system," mentioning that she won 31,000 votes alone in Wisconsin, a margin larger than the Trump-Clinton gap.

As long as Jill Stein and her supporters can raise the needed $3.5 million to do the recounts by Tuesday, Nov. 28, the recount would be set to begin Thursday, Nov. 30. From there, election officials would have until 8 p.m. Dec.12, to complete the recount. Election Officials would have to make a final, clarification statement no later than Dec. 13 on who truly won the state of Wisconsin.