(MPRN-Lansing) The campaign of Green Party candidate for president Jill Stein has officially asked for a recount of 4.9 million ballots cast in Michigan on November eighth.
The Stein campaign is pursuing recounts now in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – states where the margins between President-elect Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton were very close, although still thousands of votes apart.
Stein won just a little over 1 percent of the vote in Michigan and is more than 2 million votes behind President-elect Donald Trump. But that’s not the point, said Jessica Clarke, a New York-based attorney for the Stein campaign. She said the goal is to call attention to weaknesses in how votes are tallied.
“Anyone interested in fair, free, and accurate elections knows that these audits are absolutely essential to making sure that every American’s voice is heard,” she said.
Lou Novak is a Green Party member who ran as an elector committed to vote for Stein. He is one of the people who signed the recount petition. Novak says the effort is not about the candidates or reversing the result of the November election.
“We need to make sure this election was fair and square,” he said. “We need to make sure that everybody has their voices heard. If that happens, if the votes were counted correctly, then our system has integrity, and that’s what everybody wants.”
The Stein campaign questions the integrity of Michigan’s optical scan system for reading paper ballots. The Stein campaign says the system could be susceptible to tampering, and questions why thousands of people cast ballots but did not appear to vote for president. It wants teams of elections officials to conduct a hand recount of every vote.
Alex Halderman is a cyber-security professor at the University of Michigan, who’s been critical of the security of US voting systems. He says any electronic tallying system can be hacked – even those that are not connected to the internet -- which is why it’s important to use paper ballots.
“Now the paper ballots we use in Michigan are exactly that, they are a cyber-defense,” he said. “But paper doesn’t do any good unless somebody looks at it.”
Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is Michigan’s top elections official. She made clear in a statement released by her office that she’s not a fan of the recount:
“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.
“The cost of this recount to Michigan taxpayers could easily reach into the millions of dollars. Based on Wisconsin’s estimate, Michigan taxpayers could be paying $4 million despite the $1 million the Green Party nominee must pay to have the recount.
“Nevertheless, county clerks have been gearing up to complete this recount under a very challenging deadline. They’ll be working nights and weekends. I know they will do a great job because we have some of the best clerks in the country here in Michigan.”
Now it’s up to the state Republican Party or the Donald Trump campaign to challenge the filing if it wants to stop the recount. State GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel says the recount is a waste of time and resources because Stein got just over one percent of the vote. Her statement:
“Jill Stein’s taxpayer funded temper tantrum will waste millions and will not change anything regarding the Presidential election. Jill Stein should withdraw her request immediately, and Michigan Democrats should join in our call for her to do so. We can all agree that Michiganders tax dollars should go to something that matters, not to a burdensome and costly endeavor that will have no bearing on the outcome of the election.”
She says it also jeopardizes Michigan casting its 16 electoral votes in time to meet federal deadlines. A state elections board has scheduled a Friday morning meeting to deal with any challenges. That has the potential to stall plans to begin recounts in Michigan’s largest counties until early next week.
