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."
They don’t have to find any votes, they just have to change them.
No one in the media has asked why she is doing this, no one is asking the most basic question.
What is the purpose of this recount?
I would love to see Attorney General Sessions go after that scumbag Soros and his equally worthless sons.
Agreed. Trump and the WI better get top notch WI GOP election lawyers to file an objection with the WI Board of Elections a day/or WI State Court first thing Monday demanding this recount be stopped.
According to WI recount law, any other candidate can object to a recount request prior to it starting and petition the Election Board to stop the recount or possibly have to court stop it on grounds it is frivolous and the petitioners don’t have standing to ask since they are fringe candidates who will not benefit from a recount. They can also argue that the vote difference is well above the auto recount threshold and a recount would just be a waste of time!
TEAM Trump and the WI GOP had better wake the hell up and not ignore this. They owe it to Trump voters to do all they can do to stop this!!! With over 80,000 under it’s or rejected ballots in play and WI’s penchant for being very liberal in vote “counting” it is entirely possible that it could effect the outcome of the vote.
Also I disagree with many in that both Walker, Ryan AND Preibus COULD be doing a lot more behind the scenes to stop this. None gets a pass from me!
“Why is George Soros still alive?”
Because satan extended his lease on life on earth as a reward for his “exceptional achievements” in service of his master.
Of course their hypocrisy is blatantly evident. Which means they want to flip these three states, the exact ones Hillary needed to win, to her.
Me too!
We could have some fun with this.
Instead of pretending to get upset, the Transition team could praise the Green Party’s commitment to democracy and reward that commitment by insisting that the Green Party nominee be invited to the presidential debates in 2020.
No Green rep, No Pres. Trump at the debates in 2020!
I’m sure the Democrats will love that idea.
It’d be a fun lil bit of blowback.
Muahaahaa!
We need to brainstorm on this. Hard to think this is just to unsettle Trump or make a mess of his voters.
So they must have a plan. We don't know what it is.
The only thing I know is that if all three states manage to flip to Hillary it is time to leave this banana republic and find another place to call home.
Welcome aboard. Nice thinking. Lol
Not an Oh No person but here in NC I went to bed with Gov McCrory comfortably ahead by some 80000 votes with most of state counted and all of a sudden 90000 votes show up out of Durham county, didn’t effect Trump any for some reason but did alter governor race and a couple of others. Just beware
Capnjack you have every right to be worried. You simply know how deep down to the depths the evil of thes Soros/Mainstream media-ilk people are. Straight from Satan. But as Christ said, “let not your hearts be troubled” - we must pray...and pray beyond Inauguration day.
I agree. This is no more than a money grab for Stein. Michigan is certified and done, I doubt a recount will be allowed. Wisconsin is there to put pressure on other states because its recount rules are so vague, but over 5,000 votes is an insurmountable amount. You can’t just find several boxes of thousands of votes and expect to look legitimate. I suspect they’ll find some votes flipped from Green to DNC if anything.
*PRAYER TIME*
>>Not an Oh No person but here in NC I went to bed with Gov McCrory comfortably ahead by some 80000 votes with most of state counted and all of a sudden 90000 votes show up out of Durham county, didn’t effect Trump any for some reason but did alter governor race and a couple of others. Just beware
Yeah, problem with that is they showed up on election day. Any votes showing up 3 weeks after election day are immediately suspect, and I think regardless of the powers that be, no one wants to be the name attached to something as unscrupulous as that. I think McCrory will win, too.
the law in WI says any candidate can petition for a recount, Doesn’t say they have to have a certain % of the vote.
The timing seems more curious.
I am trying to get some info from our gop here...
Again I don't think they will "find" votes but somehow get them changed if anything.
And what good times those were. Finally a republican pulled a trick that the dems usually do. After the dems put in enough votes to win, here comes Waukesha with an "oops" and puts the good guy back over the top, too late for the dems to stuff more ballots.
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