by WorldTribune Staff, November 28, 2016
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has a steep mountain to climb before a recount can take place in Pennsylvania, which Donald Trump won by more than 70,000 votes.
Stein can’t simply file a direct request for a recount in Pennsylvania as she did in Wisconsin. According to Pennsylvania election law, she would have to file an appeal and prove in court that fraud was “probable.”
Meanwhile, Stein has raised $5.2 million to help finance recount efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which is more than she raised for her entire presidential campaign.
Observers are cautioning anyone who may want to donate to Stein’s recount effort to read the fine print on her website.
“We cannot guarantee a recount will happen in any of these states we are targeting. We can only pledge we will demand recounts in those states,” the website says.
“If we raise more than what’s needed, the surplus will also go toward election integrity efforts and to promote voting system reform.”
Even the computer specialists who recommended the recount say there is no proof of hacking or fraud.
Stein herself said in an interview: “Let me be very clear: We do not have evidence of fraud. We do not have smoking guns. What we do have is an election that was surrounded by hacking.”
The Medium reports that Hillary Clinton’s own legal team, headed by Marc Elias, has noted that it “had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology.”
Elias also noted that in even the closest margin state, Michigan, Trump’s win “well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a recount.”
The Obama administration stated that the government did not observe “any increased level of malicious cyber-activity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on election day.”
Also in Michigan, observers say Stein would have to present evidence of fraud or systematic error in every county in the state to initiate a statewide recount.
Even in Wisconsin there is no guarantee that a recount will actually occur. In addition to submitting the petition for a recount, Stein must demonstrate that “a mistake or fraud has been committed.” She has yet to do so.