Jill Stein plans to donate leftover money raised for recounts
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said Tuesday that she will donate any money left over from her bids to force election recounts in three states to groups dedicated to election reform and voting rights. Stein’s campaign raised about $7.3 million to fund her recount efforts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and she said she expects there to be some leftover money once all expenses are paid. There are currently $7.4 million in recount expenses, but that’s expected to decrease once the Wisconsin and Michigan costs are finalized. Republican Donald Trump narrowly defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in all three states on his way to victory. Wisconsin was the only state that completed a recount, finishing Monday with little change in the results. Trump beat Clinton by nearly 23,000 votes in the state. A federal court halted Michigan’s recount after three days and another federal judge didn’t allow a recount in Pennsylvania. “The final Wisconsin vote is in and guess what – we just picked up an additional 131 votes,” Trump tweeted after Wisconsin completed its recount Monday. “The Dems and Green Party can now rest. Scam!” Trump planned to hold a rally Tuesday night near Milwaukee as part of his victory tour, giving him a chance to comment in Wisconsin about the just-completed recount. Among the criticism that Trump and his supporters have leveled at Stein was that she was pursuing the recounts to raise her own profile and pad her campaign coffers. Stein only won about 1 percent of the vote in the three states. Stein said Tuesday that she had raised $7.33 million from nearly 161,300 donors. Even if she doesn’t keep any leftover money, the recounts helped her build a database of donors that could be sold to others or tapped for future efforts. Stein hoped to add to that list by soon launching an online survey asking donors who they would like any leftover money to be given to. Stein said the names of groups getting the money will be made public “in the coming weeks.” Stein also provided an accounting of what she has spent money on so far. The most, nearly $3.5 million, went to Wisconsin to pay for its recount. If the final cost is higher, Stein’s campaign would have to pay for it. But if it is less, she would be refunded the difference. Those expenses aren’t expected to be finalized until the end of December. The next largest Stein expense, more than $1.6 million, was for legal fees. Other expenses included payments to recount observers, consultants and nearly $1 million to Michigan for its aborted recount, some of which Stein expected to be refunded. Stein insisted throughout that her goal was not to overturn the results, potentially handing the election to Clinton, but rather to ensure the integrity of the vote and voting systems. She alleged, without evidence, that voting patterns in all three states raised concerns about potential hacking or security breaches. Election officials in all three states, along with judges who heard lawsuits filed both by Stein and pro-Trump forces, said there was no evidence to support such claims. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Focus of recount effort shifts to Michigan, Pennsylvania
Presidential candidate Jill Stein‘s fight to force ballot recounts in three states focuses Monday on Pennsylvania, where her Green Party is seeking an emergency federal court order for a statewide recount, and Michigan, where a federal judge has ordered a hand recount to begin by noon. The recount is underway in Wisconsin. President-elect Donald Trump narrowly defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in all three states. The recounts were not expected to change enough votes to overturn the result of the election. Stein, who received about 1 percent of the vote in all three states, says her intent is to verify the accuracy of the vote. She has suggested, with no evidence, that votes cast were susceptible to computer hacking. She also scheduled a rally and news conference for Monday morning outside Trump Tower in New York. Here’s what’s going on in each state and in Nevada, where a partial recount of the race was requested by independent presidential candidate Roque De La Fuente: — WISCONSIN The recount began Thursday and continued over the weekend, with little change so far in the unofficial results as reported on election night. A federal lawsuit was filed late last week by a Trump voter and two super PACs seeking to stop the recount. The judge rejected a request to halt the recount while the lawsuit is pending and scheduled a hearing for Friday. State and local election officials have all said they don’t expect Clinton to surpass Trump in Wisconsin, where he won by about 22,000 votes. — MICHIGAN A federal judge late Sunday night in Detroit ordered a statewide hand recount of roughly 4.8 million ballots to start by noon Monday. Trump won the state by about 10,700 votes, or two-tenths of a percentage point, over Clinton. Stein argued that a law is unconstitutional that requires a break of at least two business days after the Board of Canvassers’ final action on a recount request. Judge Mark Goldsmith found that Stein had “shown the likelihood of irreparable harm” if the count was delayed even by two days and rejected the state’s arguments about the cost to taxpayers. Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette, the Trump campaign and super PACs have filed separate lawsuits asking state courts to prevent the recount, arguing that Stein, as the fourth-place finisher, is not “aggrieved” because she has no chance of winning in a recount. — PENNSYLVANIA The Green Party filed a federal lawsuit on Monday seeking a statewide recount – a move that came after the party on Saturday dropped a case set to be argued Monday in state courts. An updated count Friday by state election officials showed Trump’s lead shrinking to 49,000 from 71,000 over Clinton, out of 6 million votes cast, as more counties finish counting overseas ballots and settled provisional ballot challenges. That is still shy of Pennsylvania’s 0.5 percent trigger for an automatic statewide recount. Final counts are outstanding in some counties, but there are not enough uncounted votes to change the outcome, officials say. — NEVADA A recount of a sample of ballots has begun in Nevada at the request of De La Fuente. Clinton won Nevada and De La Fuente finished last, but he requested and paid about $14,000 last week for the recount, which he called a counterbalance to the review sought by Stein in Wisconsin. Nevada Secretary of State spokeswoman Gail Anderson said late last week that the recount of ballots from Carson City and Douglas, Mineral, Nye and Clark counties should be completed by Friday. If the sample shows a discrepancy of at least 1 percent for De La Fuente or Clinton, a full recount will be launched in all 17 Nevada counties. Clinton defeated Trump in Nevada by 27,202 votes out of 1.1 million votes cast. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Wisconsin first state to start presidential election recount
The first candidate-driven statewide recount of a presidential election in 16 years began Thursday in Wisconsin, a state that Donald Trump won by less than a percentage point over Hillary Clinton after polls long predicted a Clinton victory. The recount requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein carries none of the drama of the Florida presidential recount of 2000, when the outcome of the election between Al Gore and George W. Bush hung in the balance. Almost no one expects Stein’s push for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to result in a Clinton victory over Trump. “This is certainly not Bush v. Gore,” said Wisconsin’s chief elections administrator Mike Haas. Even so, the campaigns for Trump, Clinton and Stein all had observers spread throughout the state to watch the recount. County election officials hired temporary workers, expanded hours and dusted off recount manuals to prepare for the work of re-tabulating nearly 3 million ballots. Most counties will manually recount the ballots, although Stein lost a court challenge this week to force hand recounts everywhere. The state’s largest county, Milwaukee, was planning to recount the ballots by feeding them through the same machines that counted them on election night. In Dane County, where Clinton won 71 percent of the vote, the ballots will be counted by hand. Workers in Dane County were being paid $20 an hour and will work two shifts for about 12 hours a day to get the recount done by the 8 p.m. Dec. 12 deadline, said County Clerk Scott McDonell. He didn’t expect much change in the results. “I think we will be very close to what was reported on election night,” McDonell said Thursday. Clinton lost to Trump by about 22,000 votes in Wisconsin. Wisconsin election officials have less than two weeks to complete the recount. Dec. 13 is the federal deadline to certify the vote to avoid having the fate of Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes decided by Congress. Even if that were to happen, the votes would almost certainly go to Trump, since Republicans control both chambers of Congress. Stein has argued, without evidence, that irregularities in the votes in all three states suggest that there could have been tampering with the vote, perhaps through a well-coordinated, highly complex cyberattack. “Verifying the vote through this recount is the only way to confirm that every vote has been counted securely and accurately and is not compromised by machine or human error, or by tampering or hacking,” Stein said in a statement Thursday. “The recount does not benefit one candidate over another. It benefits all voters across the political spectrum. This is an essential first step to restore confidence in our elections and trust in our democracy.” Stein’s critics, including the Wisconsin Republican Party, contend that she’s a little-known candidate who is merely trying to raise her profile while raising millions of dollars. Stein had raised nearly $7 million, about twice as much as her longshot presidential campaign, to pay for the recounts. The Wisconsin recount was estimated to cost about $3.9 million, while Stein paid $973,250 for the recount in Michigan, which is scheduled to begin Friday. Stein filed a lawsuit Monday in Pennsylvania to force a recount there. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
