The cost would rise if a court grants her request for a hand recount.
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Marc Erik Elias, an election lawyer for the Democratic candidate, said in a post on Medium.com on Saturday that the campaign would also participate in recounts in MI and Pennsylvania if they are arranged. That’s more than triple what the commission originally estimated and would be half of the $7 million fundraising goal Stein said was needed for recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and MI.
Thomsen dismissed Stein’s claims of problems with the Wisconsin vote as unfounded and misleading.
Hillary Clinton’s lawyer Marc Elias responded to Donald Trump’s attacks and unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud Sunday night. “It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than in the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 states that I visited”, Trump added in follow- up tweets.
Caroline Adams of Kingston voted for Clinton.
Stein, though, has proclaimed the machine-based recount a violation of her petition.
The president-elect tweeted Saturday that he’d have won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”.
“Clearly, she won big in California”, he said. Stein needed affidavits from 1686 precincts in Philadelphia to launch a full recount in the city.
Newswatch 16 spoke with a professor at Susquehanna University on Monday, and he was very confident that this recount will not change the results of the election.
Stein filed a lawsuit Monday demanding a judge order a hand recount. Election officials said earlier Tuesday they had underestimated the cost and the recount may wind up costing closer to $3.9 million. Wisconsin faces a federal deadline of December 13 to turn in its final presidential election tally. That means elections staff will have to recount almost 3 million votes in about two weeks.
Of Wisconsin’s 1,853 municipalities, 813 count most of their ballots by hand.
The Commission estimated the recount will take five to six days with many counties expected to be finished in a week, with the more populous ones taking longer.
The cost estimate for Dane County, which plans to count by hand, is estimated at about $340,000. In the past, claims of systemic election vulnerabilities have been used to call for tougher voter ID laws and wielded as a political tool to sow doubt in election results.
“To imply that fraud is rampant – at any level – from the precinct-level to an entire city or state – is without merit and lacks any credence or proof within the modern history of elections in this country or commonwealth”, said Cortes, a Democrat. The commission also rejected a request to hand-count ballots, leaving that decision up to county clerks in Wisconsin’s 72 counties.
A spokeswoman said the department is now working to get that information.
The Clinton campaign said it will participate in recount efforts led by Stein, should they happen.
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Scott Hagerstrom, Trump’s MI campaign director, wouldn’t go that far, noting that it’s Stein’s right as a candidate to request a recount.
