Lawsuits Filed in 3 States to Stop Presidential Vote Recounts

The recount of almost 3 million ballots already kicked off in Wisconsin, and auditors are rushing to meet the December 13 deadline.

The moves seeking to block or halt the recounts in the states the Republican candidate narrowly won could cause delays that would make them extremely hard or impossible to complete on time.

On Friday the state’s website reported a vote margin of 67,416 between Trump and Clinton, but a spokeswoman for the Department of State said not every county had reported updated or certified vote totals.

Ms Stein, who says her campaign is focused on ensuring the integrity of the United States voting system, questioned why Mr Trump was “afraid” of a recount.

Critics accuse Stein of trying to raise financial support and trying to increase her political profile while establishing a network of donors.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he doesn’t think the presidential recount ongoing in his state will result in any significant change in the results.

“Our goal is not to change the result of the election”, Stein said in an opinion piece released Thursday. Trump has also raised questions about the integrity of the election, saying he believes millions of people voted illegally in the country.

Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have filed a federal lawsuit, hoping to stop Wisconsin’s recount of the presidential vote.

In Wisconsin, a Trumpsupporting political action committee, Great America PAC, sued in federal court on Thursday seeking to block a recount there.

Absentee ballots are checked in the Wisconsin recount. Further, Pennsylvania law does not allow a court-ordered recount, they argued, and a lawyer for the Green Party had acknowledged that the effort was without precedent in Pennsylvania. Failing to meet that deadline could put the state outside of a federal Safer Harbor protection, which guarantees Wisconsin’s electoral votes will be honored. Trump was declared the victor of the state’s 16 electoral votes by a margin of 10,704 votes on Monday. A court hearing on the recount request will take place Monday.

Schuette argues that the Green Party, whose presidential candidate was Jill Stein, could not justifiably seek a recount in MI because Stein was not “aggrieved” to an extent that the miscounting of votes could have caused her to lose the election. Stein got about one per cent of the vote in all three states. In Michigan, where Trump was certified the victor only last week, the situation proved to be a bit more complicated: Stein requested a recount there on Wednesday – only to have her request tangled by an objection from the Trump campaign.

“Michigan voters rejected Stein’s candidacy by massive margins; but her refusal to accept that state-verified result poses an expensive and risky threat to hard-working taxpayers and abuses the intent of MI law”, Schuette said in a statement. According to MLive, the board voted 2-2 in a meeting Friday morning and because a majority was not reached, the recount can continue as planned.

Donald Trump’s campaign filed an objection with MI state officials on Thursday, which at minimum delayed the recount there.

A lawyer with Stein’s campaign has said it wants the recount done by hand.

The Michigan courts appeared unlikely to rule immediately, with one asking for a response from state elections officials by Tuesday.

The Trump campaign’s own attorneys have also moved to block recount efforts in Pennsylvania and MI.