Wisconsin Officials To Set Timeline For Recount

An 11th-hour (or maybe it’s a 13th-hour?) push to recount the votes in the rust belt states where tiny leads gave Trump the crucial electoral votes to claim the presidency is being spearheaded by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

Green Party’s Jill Stein also expected to pursue recounts in MI and Pennsylvania.

“Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – so why isn’t the media reporting on this?”

During its Monday meeting, Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers voted unanimously to certify updated election results submitted by county canvassers last week, which showed Trump beating Democrat Hillary Clinton in MI by 10,704 votes.

Wisconsin Election Commission Chair Mark Thomsen publicly took issue with that: “From my point as that chair of the commission, I think it is most unfortunate that the president-elect is claiming there’s huge with our system and that’s feeding what I call this conspiracy theory”. Instead, he pointed to a 2014 Washington Post study arguing that non-citizens could sway the vote in that year’s elections (multiple other reports offered opposing results). It’s the last state to officially certify its election results and comes almost three weeks after Election Day.

Stein says irregularities with the Wisconsin vote indicate potential tampering, although state election officials dispute that.

But Elias did write that the campaign has little expectation that Stein’s bid will change the outcome of the election. In a characteristic tweetstorm, Trump said that if the popular vote mattered, he would have won that too. The big deadline is December 19 when all of the states’ electors must meet to cast their Electoral College votes. Stein filed a lawsuit Monday asking a Dane County judge to order a hand recount.

Officials say they believe the recount is unlikely to change the outcome in MI despite the close margin Trump and Clinton. Hillary Clinton supported the recount. Stein says she’ll pay for it – and could ask her supporters for more money – even though she calls the estimated $3.5 million cost “exorbitant”. MI was the final state to certify the presidential outcome. The Elections Commission timeline assumes it would receive payment for the recount on Tuesday, which would allow it to begin on Thursday.