Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will demand a recount of election results in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, her campaign announced on Wednesday.
A group of prominent scientists and lawyers has claimed it’s found evidence of hacking or manipulation of the vote in the three states that may have influenced the results of the 2016 presidential election.
“After a divisive and painful presidential race, in which foreign agents hacked into party databases, private email servers and voter databases in certain states, many Americans are wondering if our election results are reliable,” Stein said in a statement on her campaign website. “That’s why the unexpected results of the election and reported anomalies need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust.”
Republican candidate Donald Trump shocked pollsters by winning all three states by margins of less that 11,600 in Michigan, 27,200 in Wisconsin and 68,000 in Pennsylvania, defeating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to become president.
But a New York magazine article published on Tuesday said a group led by voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society director J. Alex Halderman wants Clinton to call for a recount in those states. Overturning the results in all three states would give Clinton an electoral college win and the presidency — but they say she is “running out of time.”
The group contends that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines, compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots, according to the magazine. They say that could have cost Clinton 30,000 votes in the state, which she lost by just over 27,000 votes.
There is no proof of hacking or manipulation, but the group wants an independent review to be sure.
The Stein campaign has set a deadline of this Friday at 4 p.m. CT to raise the $2 million it says is necessary to mount the challenge. Should it fall short of its goal, the Green Party says it will challenge results in as many states as it can afford.
“We’re filing in Wisconsin Friday because the votes were cast on proven hack-prone machines,” Stein told journalist Greg Palast, who says she identified the machines in Pennsylvania as most difficult to recount.
Stein will be represented in her efforts by Bonifaz and Robert Fitrakis.