Jill Stein and her party have changed their strategy in seeking a state-wide recount in Pennsylvania.
Her campaign says it will go to the federal courts, hours after dropping an appeal in a Pennsylvania state court.
The Green Party had earlier said voters could not afford the $1 million bond ordered by the state court.
Jill Stein has tried to force recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin as well; all three were narrowly won by Donald Trump.
Image source Flickr
The Greens’ decision comes two days before a court hearing was scheduled on the case in Pennsylvania where Donald Trump’s margin of victory was 49,000, or less than 1%.
Donald Trump’s supporters are trying to block the recount bid, which are unlikely to change the polls results if they take place.
“Make no mistake, the Stein campaign will continue to fight for a state-wide recount in Pennsylvania,” recount campaign lawyer Jonathan Abady said in a statement.
“We are committed to this fight to protect the civil and voting rights of all Americans.”
Jonathan Abady said barriers to a recount in Pennsylvania are pervasive and the state court system is ill-equipped to address the problem.
Jill Stein, who was the Green Party’s presidential candidate, says the recount bid is needed to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated.
Her campaign has so far offered no evidence of hacking, and supporters of Donald Trump have asked the state court to dismiss the case.
A recount has already started in Wisconsin, which Donald Trump won by 22,000 votes. On December 2, a federal court rejected a request by Donald Trump’s supporters to immediately halt the recount there, but allowed a lawsuit to proceed.
In Michigan, Donald Trump’s team filed a complaint with the elections board to block a recount of all 4.8 million ballots cast in the state, which he won by 10,700 votes. A recount there could begin next week.
Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump, has kept silent on the matter, but her campaign has said it would co-operate with Jill Stein’s recount efforts.
The White House has reacted to Donald Trump’s claim of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election, saying that there is no evidence to support the allegations.
Press Secretary Josh Earnest dismissed Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that millions of people had cast illegal votes.
The president-elect also alleged voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California, states which Hillary Clinton won.
Josh Earnest deferred to Donald Trump’s team for further comment.
Image source Flickr
“What I can say, as an objective fact, is that there has been no evidence produced to substantiate a claim like that,” the press secretary told reporters at a White House briefing.
Donald Trump, who won the all-important Electoral College count, aired his grievances with the election result in a tweet on November 27.
“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” he wrote.
Donald Trump’s Twitter outburst comes after Hillary Clinton’s camp said it would support a vote recount in Wisconsin initiated by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Jill Stein also notified the elections board in Michigan, where Donald Trump’s 16 electoral votes were certified on November 28, that it would seek a statewide recount of the presidential election results.
Her campaign moved to do the same in Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump won by two-tenths of a percentage point out of nearly 4.8 million votes, making it the closest presidential race in Michigan in more than 75 years.
He is the first Republican presidential nominee to win Michigan since 1988.
Jill Stein’s recount effort was driven by the #recount2016 social media campaign, which has raised over $6.3 million.
During her entire presidential run, Jill Stein’s campaign only raised $3.5 million.
Results would need to be overturned in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to alter the outcome of the November 8 election – something analysts say is highly unlikely.
Donald Trump has asserted he won the popular vote on 8 November “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”.
The president-elect, who won the all-important Electoral College count, offered no evidence to back his claim.
It comes after Hillary Clinton’s campaign said it would support a vote recount in Wisconsin initiated by Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein.
Hillary Clinton won about two million votes more than Mr Trump in the popular vote.
However, Donald Trump surpassed the required 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. This was based on the state-by-state contests.
In a tweet, the president-elect wrote: “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
In his follow-up tweets, Donald Trump wrote: “It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than in the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 states that I visited.
“I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!”
Donald Trump also alleged “serious voter fraud” in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – states won by Hillary Clinton – accusing media of not reporting on that issue.
On November 27, Donald Trump reminded Hillary Clinton that she had already admitted defeat, and published remarks from the presidential debates in which she had urged an acceptance of the poll results.
At the time, Hillary Clinton was reacting to Donald Trump’s refusal to respect the outcome.
The Republican narrowly beat the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin, where a recount of the votes was initiated last week by Jill Stein.
Jill Stein also wants recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania, citing “statistical anomalies”.
The Green Party nominee reportedly wants to be sure computer hackers did not skew the poll in favor of Donald Trump.
Concerns over possible Russian interference had been expressed in the run-up to the vote.
The US government has said Russian state actors were behind hacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a claim denied by Moscow.
Results would need to be overturned in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to alter the outcome of the November 8 election – something analysts say is highly unlikely.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign has said it will participate in Wisconsin’s recount.
Donald Trump has attacked Hillary Clinton over her campaign’s support for a recount of votes in Wisconsin.
The president-elect reminded his Democratic rival that she had already conceded, and published remarks from the presidential debates in which she had urged an acceptance of the poll results.
Hillary Clinton was then reacting to Donald Trump’s refusal to respect the outcome.
The recount in Wisconsin was initiated by Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein.
Wisconsin was narrowly won by Donald Trump.
Photo CBS News
Jill Stein also wants recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania, citing “statistical anomalies”.
She reportedly wants to be sure computer hackers did not skew the poll in favor of Donald Trump.
Concerns over possible Russian interference had been expressed in the run-up to the vote.
The US government has said Russian state actors were behind hacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a claim denied by Moscow.
Results would need to be overturned in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to alter the outcome of the November 8 election – something analysts say is highly unlikely.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign has said it will participate in Wisconsin’s recount.
Posting on Twitter, Donald Trump said the recount decision was “sad”.
“So much time and money will be spent – same result!” he said.
The president-elect had earlier accused Jill Stein of trying to “fill her coffers with money” on the pretext of asking for donations towards a recount.
Jill Stein’s website says more than $6 million has already been raised toward a $7 million target. It says this is enough to fund the recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The deadline for the petition for the recount in Wisconsin was November 25, while Pennsylvania’s deadline is November 28, and Michigan’s is November 30.
Wisconsin Elections Commission has received a request for a recount of the votes in the state narrowly won by Donald Trump on November 8.
The request was filed by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
Dr. Jill Stein has also pledged to file vote recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
However, a win by Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin alone would not overturn Donald Trump’s lead – it provides only 10 votes in the crucial electoral college that gave Trump victory.
If Hillary Clinton wins in Wisconsin, Michigan (16 electoral votes) and Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes) would have clinched the presidency for the Democrat.
“The Commission has received the Stein and Del La Fuente recount petitions,” Wisconsin Elections Commission tweeted.
Image source Flickr
It added that details would be released shortly.
Meanwhile, Jill Stein tweeted that Wisconsin recount would begin next week. November 25 was the deadline for the request.
Her campaign needs to raise millions of dollars to cover the fees for the vote recount in all three states.
Jill Stein’s website says nearly $5.3 million has already been raised toward a $7 million target. It says this is enough to fund the recounts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Voting rights lawyers who urged candidates to request recounts, John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, have said the results need to be closely analyzed.
The fact that the results in the three states were different from what polls predicted was “probably not” down to hacking, J. Alex Halderman said. Concerns over possible Russian interference had been expressed in the run-up to the vote.
“The only way to know whether a cyber-attack changed the result is to closely examine the available physical evidence ,” he wrote.
Pennsylvania’s deadline is November 28, and Michigan’s is November 30.
According to officials, there was no evidence of election tampering in the three states where Donald Trump had razor-thin victories over Hillary Clinton.
The Republican’s camp has made no public comments on the recounts issue.
Donald Trump won 290 electoral votes in the November election, while Hillary Clinton had 232 votes.
Michigan is yet to declare final results.
This website has updated its privacy policy in compliance with EU GDPR 2016/679. Please read this to review the updates about which personal data we collect on our site. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our updated policy. AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
