Green Party seeks EC recount in Wisconsin

Washington: Former Green Party candidate Jill Stein submitted papers on Saturday to request a vote recount in Wisconsin, one of three battleground states won by Donald Trump and where she intends to challenge the results.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission said it is “preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States” as requested by Stein and separately by a fringe candidate.

The commission said the deadline for completing a recount is December 13, so its clerk will have to work quickly. It said it is still calculating the fee it will charge Stein’s party for the arduous work of staging a recount.

Stein says she also plans to challenge the presidential election results in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where Trump won. Her campaign has cited unspecified “anomalies” as grounds to mount a challenge in all three Rust Belt states.

Stein says she has raised more than $4.8 million of her $7 million goal. The deadlines for filing in Pennsylvania and Michigan are Monday and Wednesday of next week. “These recounts are part of an election integrity movement to attempt to shine a light on just how untrustworthy the US election system is,” Stein’s fundraising website added.

The move comes amid stepped-up calls from some of Trump’s left-wing opponents to challenge the results of the November 8 election, which followed a bitter campaign that included persistent charges of Russian hacking and allegations by Trump of fraud.

“After a divisive and painful presidential race, reported hacks into voter and party databases and individual email accounts are causing many Americans to wonder if our election results are reliable,” Stein said on her website.

“These concerns need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust.”Although experts say there is virtually no chance of overturning the result, the demands could reignite debate over the legitimacy of Trump’s election, already fueled by Democrat Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote, which now stands at two million.

Clinton lost by a margin of around 27,000 votes in Wisconsin and 60,000 votes in Pennsylvania, while unofficial results released by Michigan’s secretary of state’s office put Trump ahead by a mere 10,704 votes.