Stein pays 3.5 million to fund Wisconsin recount

[milestogo]

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Madison Green Party candidate Jill Stein paid 3.5 million Tuesday to start Wisconsin's presidential vote recount and her attorneys argued into the evening as part of her lawsuit to require all Wisconsin counties to do the recount by hand.

Also Tuesday, Democrat Hillary Clinton's lawyers backed Stein's effort in Dane County Circuit Court to force the hand recount in all counties. The Clinton camp, which has already acknowledged a recount is unlikely to change the outcome in Wisconsin, said in a court filing Tuesday that a hand recount would provide greater confidence in the final result of the election and might catch more mistakes than a machine count.

State officials said there was no legal basis for forcing counties to use a hand recount since there was no evidence it was better than electronic tallies in this case and would delay the process for the counties that weren't already planning to count ballots by hand. "Asking (counties) to retool their plans fewer than two days before the recount is set to begin would (create) additional burdens and could delay the recount's end date putting at risk whether Congress will honor Wisconsin's slate of presidential electors," the state Department of Justice argued in a motion.

The Stein campaign brought forward a series of experts in statistics and computer science who argued for a hand recount by describing a series of hypothetical ways that computer hackers might reprogram voting machines. "I am strongly of the opinion that a hand recount is going to provide a more accurate result," University of Michigan computer scientist J. Alex Halderman said.

Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/11/29/steins-recount-headed-court-tuesday/94598740/

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The escalation of the filing fee is pretty ridiculous - just like Republican state government. Stein is now trying to raise 9.5 million.

[Equinox Moon]

1. This is a good action. Thank you Jill.

No matter what the outcome, it is good to audit the voting system.

[spooky3]

3. Agree. There are lots of problems in our voting system (e.g., voter suppression) but this is a good

step to take even though it won't solve all problems.

[Equinox Moon]

6. It would be the perfect time to mention VOTER SUPRESSION

Last edited Wed Nov 30, 2016, 12:18 AM - Edit history (1)

while she has the national stage with this. Not many people have ever heard about it.

[Augiedog]

2. Republicans will go to any extreme to prevent a close examination of the vote, can't imagine why!

[milestogo]

4. Makes me think there was big time fraud in Wisconsin.

Which is exactly what I was thinking on election night when the results were so far off from what was predicted.

[womanofthehills]

5. Now Wisconsin wants 3.9 million

I hope they stop raising the amount.

[Equinox Moon]

8. 400,000 more! That was fast.

I really believe in what she is doing on behalf of our nation's democracy. I am going to donate to her efforts now.

[Travis_0004]

9. They will bill Jill Stein the actual cost when it is done

If the cost is 3.9, they will send her a bill for 400k.

If its less than 3.5 million they will issue a refund of the difference.

[zonkers]

7. Too bad she couldn't get some Amex points.

[humbled_opinion]

10. Aside from exposing serious

irregularity like a hack, which probably would have been identified by local officials on election night, is there any chance at all that this will overturn the result ?

[milestogo]

11. The difference is only 22000 votes in Wisconsin.

The result was changed from 27K to 22K just last week after 4 counties admitted padding their results.

There are 72 counties in WI and the vast majority lean Republican - I wouldn't be shocked at all if there was a lot more vote padding for Trump.

[FailureToCommunicate]

12. What's a few more dollars for peace of mind...

As another DUer said last week: ya spend that much on coffee, and, this effort could be a waste of $$...but maybe, just maybe, it could help save our country.

https://jillstein.nationbuilder.com/recount

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

13. Judge denies request for handcount - is it me, or did the attorneys misstate or understate the

necessity for hand count?
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/judge-denies-request-for-hand-recount-of-wisconsin-s-presidential/article_527e4a4b-4840-579b-a56c-10ab0c4a334f.html

From the article:
Clinton’s attorney, Josh Kaul, wrote in a memo to the court that a hand recount is “preferable to a machine recount because human beings can assess voter intent in a way that machines cannot.”

NO!!! Its not merely "preferable," its essential to determining if the machine totals are correct and havent been intentionally manipulated - have to compare the electronic results to the paper documentation. Otherwise - what's the point?

What am I missing here.

[milestogo]

14. The judge basically ruled that it is up to the counties to decide

whether to do a manual recount or electronic tabulations. There are 72 counties in WI - 19 counties have said they will not do manual recounts. Some of the counties will be manually recounted.

Apparently there would have to be some indication of election fraud in order for the judge to compel a manual recount in all counties. (I don't know how you can get the evidence of election fraud without doing a manual recount.) Stein had the computer experts in court but it wasn't enough for the judge to rule in a way which mandated manual recounts.