As many of us know a push led by Jill Stein was made to have the 2016 election votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania recounted in order to look for any discrepancies between actual votes and counted votes. These states in particular were chosen because the margin was close enough that if a large discrepancy was found in them it could flip the state in Hillary’s favor. This is a controversial subject for many since the chance of it changing the election results were slim to none and there was little to no evidence to show that clear voter fraud was present and helped to elect Donald Trump. Also, the time and money that would need to be put into a project as big as this didn’t sit well with many either. As for it leading to Hillary winning the electoral vote she would have to be able to flip all three states in order to hit the 270 votes needed to qualify as president.
The Wisconsin recount was accepted after Jill Stein paid the fund raised 3.5 million dollars estimated to run the statewide re-tabulation. The actual recount started on December first and it has seen very little change. Overall only around 1,800 votes were changed out of three million votes equaling to a 0.06% change in the state’s overall count. It should also be noted that a gain in Donald Trump’s votes accounted for 162 of those changed votes. Many election officials have stated that the change in numbers could be easily explained by simple human error since the change is so miniscule. Overall a difference was found but it is so small that it still cannot be proved as a clear sign of voter fraud and will make no difference in the outcome of the state’s electoral votes or the presidential race.
In Michigan initially the recount team was geared to start the recount but Judge Goldsmith put an end to it. Goldsmith originally made an emergency order to start the recount but the State of Michigan Court of Appeals which Goldsmith is a part of struck down the recount with Goldsmith changing his decision on the matter. In Goldsmith’s order he states “Rather, Plaintiffs' asserted right to a recount is just a restatement of her right to participate in a fair election, free from tampering or mistake. But, to date, Plaintiffs have not presented evidence of tampering or mistake. Instead, they present speculative claims going to the vulnerability of the voting machinery -- but not actual injury,". Because Jill could not produce any evidence to prove any type of tampering and simply tried to run on speculation alone the judge was unwilling to have the time and effort needed put in to recount the election vote. However, Jill Stein still counter argued in federal court that it was a “distorted interpretation” of the law.
In Pennsylvania federal judge Paul Diamond also struck down the recount stating that it “bordered on the irrational” to suspect hacking occurred in the PA voter machines. Again, Jill could offer no evidence to support the claims but instead just stated that because a majority of PA uses voter machines instead of paper ballots there was no paper trail to prove that the vote was correct. The judge also sited that there would not be enough time to do a full recount in time for the vote submission deadline on December 13th.
Overall this entire push was destined to fail from the start. It was created, ran, and ended on purely speculation and if the recounts would have been anything like Wisconsin’s it only would of amounted to a massive waste of time and money. It is estimated that around 12 million dollars would be needed to run the recount in all three states and Jill Stein raised about 6.3 million dollars in donation to the effort. Overall she only paid out 3.5 million dollars since Wisconsin was the only state to actually run the recount and she technically does not have to give the extra three million back even though it was never used. To bring my own opinion into play I would absolutely support a recount If there was substantial evidence provided that showed a solid possibility for voter fraud occurring. In this case however due to the time and money needed to run a recount on such short notice as well as there being no evidence of fraud being present… I really can’t support it.
