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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tabulator Claudette Moll, right, from Farmington, looks over a ballot during a statewide presidential election recount Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, West Bend, Wis.
LANSING, Mich. >> Michigan’s elections board on Friday will consider President-elect Donald Trump’s request to block a hand recount of all 4.8 million ballots cast in the state he won by about 10,700 votes over Hillary Clinton.
Lawyers for the Trump campaign argued Thursday that Green Party nominee Jill Stein, a “bottom-dwelling candidate,” cannot seek the expensive, time-consuming recount because she was not “aggrieved” to the point where potential miscounting of votes could have cost her the election. She garnered just 1 percent in Michigan.
They also said in their objection that Stein waited until the last minute to file her recount petition Wednesday, making it impossible to finish by a Dec. 13 deadline.
Stein countered that Trump’s “cynical efforts to delay the recount and create unnecessary costs for taxpayers are shameful and outrageous.” His objections suspended the planned Friday start of the recount until next week.
A recount is already underway in Wisconsin, which Trump won by roughly 22,000 votes and where the first reporting of numbers was expected Friday. In Pennsylvania, a hearing was scheduled for Monday on Stein’s push to secure a court-ordered statewide recount, a legal maneuver that has never been tried, according to one of the attorneys who filed it.
Recounts were not expected to flip nearly enough votes to change the outcome in any of the states.
The Wisconsin recount doesn’t carry nearly the same drama as the Florida recount in 2000, when the outcome of the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush hung in the balance.
“This is certainly not Bush v. Gore,” said Mike Haas, Wisconsin’s chief elections administrator.
Even so, the campaigns for Trump, Clinton and Stein all had observers spread throughout the state to watch the process.
The recount will have to move quickly. The federal deadline to certify the vote to avoid having the fate of Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes decided by Congress is Dec. 13. Even if that were to happen, the votes would almost certainly go to Trump, since Republicans control both chambers of Congress.
Stein has argued, without evidence, that irregularities in the votes in all three states suggest that there could have been tampering with the vote, perhaps through a well-coordinated, highly complex cyberattack.
“Verifying the vote through this recount is the only way to confirm that every vote has been counted securely and accurately and is not compromised by machine or human error, or by tampering or hacking,” Stein said.
Stein’s critics, including the Wisconsin Republican Party, contend that she is a little-known candidate who is merely trying to raise her profile while raising millions of dollars.
The Wisconsin recount was estimated to cost about $3.9 million. Stein paid $973,250 for the requested recount in Michigan. Michigan’s Republican secretary of state, Ruth Johnson, has said a recount could cost $5 million total.
Crooked Corrupt Nasty hiLIARy can not…I repeat…CAN NOT fathom the LANDSLIDE LOSS that smacked her! She believed the skewered MSM PROPAGANDA & their FALSE POLL numbers.
Even poor Bubba got dirty lickins from her when she realized it wasn’t a nightmare.
Someone needs to smack some reality into her…but being narcissistic, alcoholic and psychotic she may never regain normalcy.
SAD!
Hillary is in a difficult position. she took mega bucks from very shady countries and individuals though out the world so they would have an inside track to what happens in the Clinton administration. Now that she is out, do you think those people are going to let her go quietly with all that dough in her account? I would think she is shaking in her boots right about now. So they try and fund a recall. Will that satisfy those that are out millions? Hmmm?
clinton, before the election, speaking about the possibility of trump not accepting the election results:
“That is not the way our democracy works. We’ve been around for 240 years,” she said. “We’ve had free and fair elections. We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them.”
obama, before the election, speaking about the possibility of trump not accepting the election results:
“That is dangerous,” Obama said. “Because when you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy. … You’re doing the work of our adversaries . . . ”
trump, january 20, 2017:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
You do realize that Trump stated that if he were to lose he would challenge the election results. In fact, he stated that it was rigged. Now that he’s in the driver’s seat he does not want a recount. How hypocrite is that? Or do you not see the hypocrisy? I’m sure had he been the one losing he would be crying foul and demanding a recount.
nodaddy: The gist here is that Trump said he would challenge the results if he lost. But Hiliary said she would not do so, but now she has said she will assist in the recount. Hypocrisy is not Trump, but Hiliary’s. You need to get your facts and thinking straight here.
ouch!
I think you are engaging in bad logic
As I recall:
Trump said if he won then he would not challenge
This does not logically imply
If he lost then he would challenge
So, if I have this right, perhaps a logic reminder is due:
If Fred is a dog then Fred is a mammal
This does not logically imply
If Fred is not a dog then Fred is not a mammal
(Fred could be a cat)
Trump’s statement that the election was rigged was true.
It has been documented that:
The DNC stacked the deck against Bernie, and elements of the media secretly colluded with the Clinton campaign.
“Unnecessary costs for taxpayers” Stein says. Well, pay for it yourself then. You’re the one seeking this recount. “A recount could cost $5 million” says Ruth Johnson, Michigan Secretary of State.
Michigan needs the cash. Let the recount proceed.
Let’s see this ballot was cast for Trump and the ink goes slightly over the land. The tabultor determines in the case of a Trump ballot this one’s clearly invalid. Next.
Stein is hoping money will be left over so she can keep it. But of course the Alt-Left doesn’t see that. So out of touch.
“First Day of Wisconsin recount nets: Hillary Clinton ONE (1) vote”.
Jill Stein gets 17
Gary Johnson gets 12.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!