Lawsuit filed to End Recount

First Day of Wisconsin Recount Nets One Vote Change Between Trump And Clinton. Election officials are confident by Randy DeSoto 12/2/16

The conclusion of the first day of Wisconsin’s recount in the presidential race has netted Hillary Clinton one vote. Currently, approximately 22,000 votes separate Clinton and winner Donald Trump.

Trump garnered 1,404,000 (47.2 percent) votes to Clinton’s 1,381,823 (46.4 percent), while Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who called for the recount (now backed by Clinton’s campaign), took 1 percent of the vote or 31,006.

Based on the first day of the recount’s results, it does not appear the candidates’ overall tallies will change much. Menominee County, home to the Menominee Indian Reservation, was the only one of Wisconsin’s 72 counties to fully report its results at the end of the first day. It is the second-smallest county in terms of population with approximately 4, 500 people.

Trump lost two votes and Clinton lost one, while Stein picked up 17 votes and Libertarian Gary Johnson gained 12, the Racine Journal Times reported. Wisconsin counties have until Dec. 13 to complete their recounts. “Two pro-Trump groups, the Great America PAC and the Stop Hillary PAC … went to federal court late Thursday to try and stop the recount,” according to ABC News. 

Meanwhile, the Michigan elections board deadlocked Friday so a recount will go forward on Tuesday or Wednesday in The Great Lakes State unless the court intervenes. Two Republicans on the board voted against the recount and two Democrats voted in favor of it.

As reported by Western Journalism, Trump won Michigan by 10,700 votes, according to the official results. An automatic recount in the state is triggered when the difference is 2,000 votes or less.

In a statement Wednesday regarding Stein’s push for a recount in the state, Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said, “It is unusual that a candidate who received just 1 percent of the vote is seeking a recount, especially when there is no evidence of hacking or fraud, or even a credible allegation of any tampering.”

Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette, R, filed a suit  Friday to end Stein’s recount demand. “Jill Stein received fewer than 52,000 of the more than 4.7 million votes cast in Michigan’s election for President, yet she now alleges that she is an ‘aggrieved’ candidate and demands a recount that has no possibility of changing the result of that election,” the lawsuit states, adding, “We have asked the court to end the recount which Stein is pursuing in violation of Michigan laws that protect the integrity of our elections.”

Stein has also filed suit in Pennsylvania to try to force a third recount. The candidate garnered approximately 49,600 votes in the Keystone State to Trump’s 2,955,000 and Hillary Clinton’s 2,906,000. The gap between Trump and Clinton stands at approximately 47,000 votes. 

The filing deadline of Nov. 21 already passed before Stein made the call for a recount, but the Green Party candidate has filed a suit in state court for a recount in more than 100 precincts in Pennsylvania. The state has more than 9,100 precincts.

The precincts Stein wants retallied are in and around heavily Democratic Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the Associated Press reported. In order for an automatic recount to be triggered, the difference between the candidates must be .05 percent or less; however, the current difference is 0.8 percent, so the threshold was not met, according to the state’s posted results.

A hearing is scheduled for Monday in the Keystone Stone to determine whether Stein’s request will go forward. According to ABC News, election officials in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania have all expressed confidence in their results.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/first-day-of-wisconsin-recount-nets-a-one-vote-change-between-trump-and-clinton/