Posted on 11/25/2016 4:32:23 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Wisconsin Elections Commission announced Friday that it would hold a statewide recount of the presidential vote. The move was in response to petitions from two candidates, the Green Party's Jill Stein and independent Rocky Roque De La Fuente.
Federal law requires that all recounts be finished 35 days after the election, which is Dec. 13. One or both of the candidates will be required to pay for the recount.
"We have assembled an internal team to direct the recount, we have been in close consultation with our county clerk partners, and have arranged for legal representation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice," said Wisconsin Elections Commission Director Mike Haas in a statement.
"We plan to hold a teleconference meeting for county clerks next week and anticipate the recount will begin late in the week after the Stein campaign has paid the recount fee, which we are still calculating."
Haas added that the process is very detail-oriented and he is concerned that some counties will be challenged to finish on time. In a recount, ballots must be examined to determine voter intent before being counted.
Stein has been leading the effort to force general election recounts in certain swing states. Her effort continues to gain steam — and money.
On Wednesday she announced she would demand recounts in three states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. President-elect Donald Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and Michigan is still too close to call.
To cover the cost of the recounts, Stein launched a fundraising campaign, which has raised more than $5 million in less than three days.
Stein's fundraiser website explicitly says the campaign is not an effort to help Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but to "ensure the integrity of our elections." Clinton has not commented on the efforts.
The deadline to file for a recount in Pennsylvania is Monday and Michigan's is Wednesday.
Before the announcement was made, Haas called a potential recount "uncharted territory," according to Laurel White with Wisconsin Public Radio. White reported:
"State law allows any candidate on the ballot to request a recount, but if the margin is more than 0.25 percent, the candidate must pay for its cost. "Haas said the recount would cost at least $500,000. "The commission is reviewing state law to determine when that money would be due.
" 'There's a little bit of ambiguity in the statutes,' Haas said. 'In one place, it states that the fee must be paid at the time the petition is filed; another statute indicates once the petition is filed, that's when our agency calculates an estimate.'
"Once a recount order is issued by the commission, clerks across the state have 13 days to complete it, Haas said."
Stein initially set a fundraising goal of $2.5 million. As donations started pouring in, that goal jumped to $4.5 million, as New York Magazine's Yashar Ali pointed out on Twitter.
By Friday, the goal had jumped again, to $7 million. The campaign says that will go to cover filing fees, attorney fees and other associated costs.
Donations are still rolling in, but as Stein's fundraising website states, money doesn't necessarily mean the recounts are assured: "We cannot guarantee a recount will happen in any of these states we are targeting. We can only pledge we will demand recounts in those states."
If the recounts don't happen, what will become of all that money? Stein's website says any "surplus will also go toward election integrity efforts and to promote voting system reform." It did not specify what those efforts would be.
As NPR's Camila Domonoske told the Newscast unit, "Some security and election experts have publicly called for paper ballots to be checked in Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan, to make sure that the computers that counted those ballots weren't hacked." But, she says, "There's no evidence that the electronic machines were hacked or the election was compromised."
The Governor has nothing to do with this.
“Hillary has to find some 27,507 votes to turn the results.”
only if Donald does not find even one more, other wise she needs even more.
Roger Stone on Twitter: “Jill Stein “recount funded by Soros
https://mobile.twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/802230392493404160
The only time to take a deep breath is on Jan 20 when Trump is standing there taking the oath.
Until then ANYTHING can happen with these people.
And CA, mostly a vote verification, just to verify that only legal citizens who are alive and breathing have voted
That should cut her popular vote by 3 million or so
Michigan is NOT too close to call!! It was called Wednesday by over 10, 000.
Jill Stein can go to _____ and take that baggy-eyed abomination with her.
So, if someone voted for a dem downballot but left the top blank, this is a vote for H3ll? How is that conclusion not absurd on its face, especially since Stein/Soros is the petitioner?
“Rich people are just like you and me, they spend a dime unless they know something is going to come out of it””
Hahaha! JEB! Donors! Hahaha!
Trump just gets to lose votes that’s how the game is played /s
Well they did expect him to win......
If all this is to come to nothing ... they why are they doing it?
Why is Stein receiving so much money so fast for this “effort” if it is just a waste of time?
Makes no sense to me.
“I wonder how much money Jill Stein got to do this.”
Little people like Stein and Bernie can be bought for a relative pittance - a pittance to someone like Soros, who buys people like we buy coffee at the store.
Isn’t Stein also ready to demand a recount in PA and MI?
Bernie got a house and Stein gets to be famous...win-win for the losers.
To Soros, giving Stein this money is like you fishing for a dime in your pocket.
I’m not sure Soros is similar to you and me. This is from his Wikipedia article:
‘Between 1979 and 2011 Soros donated more than $11 billion to various philanthropic causes.’
[Of course with Soros, when you read, “philanthropic,” it means ‘leftwing subversion.’]
The sense of it is to burn the country down if they can’t have it or hey by God burn it. Second losing that may as well try and de legitimize Trump . These people need a royal beat down or worse
The state of Wisconsin will certify it’s electoral outcome Dec 13th, whether the recount is finished or not.
The Gore vs Florida said the Feds cannot supercede state will on these matters.
Oh, and anyone who thinks Clinton will be installed after 3 state recounts is smoking crack.
This is a rated ZERO threat.
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