Stein calls for recount in three crucial swing states
Clinton supporters hold on to hope of gaining enough Electoral College votes to win
Just when you thought the commotion around the 2016 election was dead and gone, a proposal surrounding election integrity has come up.
Questions of potential voter fraud have arisen throughout the country, and former Green Party Candidate Jill Stein is leading the movement.
The victory of President-Elect Donald Trump over his democratic counterpart Hillary Clinton was certainly unexpected by citizens nationwide. After he captured a few key swing states, there were some who were convinced that his victory required further scrutiny.
This scrutiny led to a call for a full audit or vote recount in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, three states that were crucial to Trump’s presumed Electoral College win despite a predicted win for Clinton.
After seeing Clinton win the popular vote by more than two million votes, many individuals jumped on board, including Stein, who said that there was an unusual amount of blank ballots in Michigan.
“This may be a tip off, or a red flag that there’s either been machine error, or in some cases tampering,” Stein said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.
While Trump continues his controversial cabinet selection process, the Hillary for America Campaign has jumped on board with the recount process and Wisconsin has already made some promising progress. A statewide recount of nearly three million ballots was set to begin on Thursday, Dec. 1.
Mark Elias, one of Clinton’s most veteran campaign attorneys, said in an online post that the campaign would participate in the recounts in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides. There has been no public statement from Clinton.
“We believe we have an obligation to the more than 64 million Americans who cast ballots for Hillary Clinton to participate in ongoing proceedings to ensure that an accurate vote count will be reported,” wrote Elias in his post.
As for Trump, on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” his Senior Adviser and former Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway had some other thoughts about the recount and Clinton’s campaign.
“They’re being a bunch of crybabies and sore losers about an election that they can’t turn around,” said Conway.
Trump later contributed a few posts on Twitter, dismissing the recount effort.
“Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in,” Trump wrote, followed by, “Nothing will change.”
Trump could not possibly be more correct.
Being far from a Trump fan, I feel Clinton is chasing something that quite possibly can never be reached. If she so happens to win the vote in Wisconsin, she will still need to gain 22 more Electoral College votes to capture the presidency. That’s a longshot—a very far longshot.
Many individuals remember the 2000 presidential election when crucial votes in Florida brought up many questions about the swing state. The state was the deciding factor between putting George W. Bush in office or Al Gore. This election was in doubt for weeks in the eyes of voters.
Gore won the popular vote over Bush but was defeated in the Electoral College. Fast forward 16 years, and you will see the same results with the same outcome. Nothing is going to change.
Stein initiated the recount, but Clinton is clearly on board with the proposal of the statewide recount in those three crucial states. Stein wanted to give Clinton that second chance at the presidency, but why wait until after the election to show your support for her? Especially when Stein was running herself.
My guess would be because she is afraid of what might happen with Trump sitting in the Oval Office in a few months. It is clear that she supports Clinton and that is why she is pushing for the recount, but a Clinton win in three states will not be an easy task.
Clinton is down 11,612 votes in Michigan, 68,236 in Pennsylvania and in Wisconsin, which is approved for the recount, 27,257 votes.
Even though Stein raised more than enough money—over five million dollars, in fact—to file for recounts in those states, it is unlikely that the outcome of the election will change unless widespread voter fraud is proven.
In an interview with The Guardian, Wisconsin Election Commission Director Michael Haas said that despite the recount, there has been no evidence of interference in the state’s voting system.
“We don’t have any reason to suspect that any voting equipment has been tampered with,” Haas said.
This recount will have very little effect on who will lead our country for the next four years. The only thing it will do is enrage and fuel Trump’s future actions.
I would be angered too if I was a part of a nation-wide victory that involved the entire population having a choice, and then I heard that it was a scam or a fluke. Trump probably could feel terrible and ashamed.
In reality, he probably feels everything but terrible and ashamed, especially when he has shown us in the past that he is unconcerned with what he does and how he acts: like an immature child at times, and an extremely vulgar and violent man at other times. He could probably care less about the recount because he has the power now.
Essentially, he gets away with anything and everything, so it is no sweat for him as he sits back and watches Clinton’s campaign scratch and claw for even the slimmest chance at an overruling victory in the 2016 election.