2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy are people giving Jill Stein millions of dollars for an election recount?
By David Weigel November 24
On Wednesday afternoon, near the start of one of the year's final news droughts, former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein announced a new campaign: to pay for recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The news went first to the journalist Greg Palast, then on Stein's Facebook page, then in an interview with the Russian propaganda channel RT.
This has been a hack-riddled election, Stein explained. We have voting machines that are extremely hack-friendly in an election that's been very contentious.
Stein's fundraising goal was $2.5 million and donors blew right past it. At that point, as New York magazine first reported, the goal spiked to $4.5 million, and new language on the donation page admitted that costs could rise higher. The costs associated with recounts are a function of state law, wrote the Stein campaign. Attorney's fees are likely to be another $2-3 million, then there are the costs of the statewide recount observers in all three states. The total cost is likely to be $6-7 million.
It's a lot of money, especially for the Green Party. Stein's 2016 campaign, the party's most electorally potent since 2000, took in $3,509,477 from donors. As of Thursday afternoon, the recount effort had raised $3,875,502. It's the largest donation drive for a third party in history so what's actually going on?
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/24/why-are-people-giving-jill-stein-millions-of-dollars-for-an-election-recount/?wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1
Nancyswidower
(182 posts)why would she do anything now with ZERO % chance of changing outcome.
womanofthehills
(8,808 posts)No matter how small the chance, it's all we have now. Do you really believe there is no such thing as tampering with elections??
Jill has a history of working to clean up elections.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)I agree with what you stated and even if it only helps trying to clean up our elections what's the big friggin deal.
greytdemocrat
(3,299 posts)On CNN that she knows of no evidence
of hacking yet she constantly brings up
the word hacking. Very weird to me.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/25/politics/green-party-recount-wisconsin/index.html|
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)in two days to raise more money than she did for her entire Presidential campaign, all by playing on the dreams of people who simply can't believe that Hillary Clinton lost the Presidency to Donald Trump.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)but it's certainly about Hillary's loss for all of the Democrats who sending money to Stein.
It's just about fundraising to Stein.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)& I am no Jill Stein fan just so you know.
musicblind
(4,486 posts)I know the results aren't likely to change. I told a friend I'd eat a frog if this recount thing overturned the results. We know it won't.
But I believe in getting rid of electronic voting machines and I always have. I believe in stronger in electoral reform. In a round-a-bout way, I think this could help bring awareness to these problems. It depends on how the media covers it.
womanofthehills
(8,808 posts)This is great for Hillary. Hillary gets the recount without looking like a bad loser. I bet Hillary is loving this!!
womanofthehills
(8,808 posts)in 2011 it got really bizarro in Wisconsin. Votes appearing out of nowhere.
You think we should just roll over and not recount. Why?
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)Only those who support Clinton are interested in clean elections.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)And next week she'll file for the other two states.
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)I don't exactly have my choice of candidates willing to step up and challenge this thing.
scscholar
(2,902 posts)Here in Washington state we vote by mail, and my vote and everyone I know that voted for Hillary had their votes thrown in the trash. Status after over two weeks since the election:
http://imgur.com/a/3Oybb
There is massive fraud.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)you don't think HRC and Bernie donors kicked in for this. Of course they did. Who the hell cares WHO did it? I may be homeless if Trump gets in. I am thankful. We knew darn well, as soon as MSM started to notice this they would slam it. I live in Wisconsin and they have been cheating for 6 years. They thought they would take Walker's method to a higher level this year.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)musicblind
(4,486 posts)Couldn't they just cheat again?
I'm not asking this as an antagonist. I donated to the recount effort. I'm asking in all seriousness, if the same people are doing the recount... couldn't they just cheat twice? Assuming they cheated at all the first time.
Blanks
(4,835 posts)Among the need for additional fees.
jake335544
(53 posts)Last edited Sat Nov 26, 2016, 08:57 PM - Edit history (1)
It's almost as if Wa Post doesn't want the recounts to happen. So what if it doesn't flip a state? Those voting machines *are* basically jokes, and if the vote total doesn't change by a whole lot, it'd be like Ohio in 2004, where they have some sort of rule where only a certain % of the votes can be recounted, leaving more room open to fraud.
Honestly, there's no downside to this. And it's embarrassing to me that the Green Party of all things is having to spearhead this themselves.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)Even though it's obvious that our efforts didn't reach effectively motivate the voters we needed in order to win.
It's much easier to believe that something precious was stolen from you than it is to try to figure out how it was that you gave it away.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)by exploiting the emotions of people who can't bring themselves to believe that Hillary lost, and who cling to some shred of hope that the election will be overturned.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)If it's not about fundraising for the Green Party, why isn't Stein or the Green Party disclosing how much is being or has been raised by Green Party sites other than hers?
Little Star
(17,055 posts)some people can walk & chew gum at the same time without commingling the two. Why should she disclose how much is being or has been raised by any Green Party site? I don't think she owes us that info at this point.
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)Because yesterday, she was linking to those sites, saying that anyone who wanted to donate to the recount fund could do it at those site, and could donate up to $10,000. This morning, one of them still had a link up for recount donations, although the other linked back to Stein's site for recount donations.
You're right that she doesn't owe any explanations regarding fundraising for the Green Party in general, but if other sites are raising money for her effort, I think she owes it to donors to know that.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)and no one is making you stick up for Stein but yourself.
As I've said numerous times, I think this is a huge waste of both time and money, but as it's neither my time nor my money, have at it.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)The other two remain to be seen.
I agree 100% that recounts cost money; in fact, when she initially was asking for only $2.5 million, I posted here that she would need a whole lot more than that.
But money is being raised by a state Green party (MA Green-Rainbow), also ostensibly for the recount. However, that amount isn't showing up on the main page, nor is there anything on the MA Green-Rainbow site showing how much has been raised, at least there wasn't a total earlier today.
She's currently at ~$5.5 million on her site, so she'll easily make the $7 million. But how much is also being raised on the other site?
I just think she needs to be transparent with the money that she's getting, because you can bet the vast majority of it is coming from Democrats, not from Greens.
Vogon_Glory
(9,137 posts)The reason many people gave to Stein's fund raiser is not just because so many of us are bitter about the results, but also because many of us feel that the ruling party has become so corrupt that they have either reached the point (or passed it) that they are not only going to practice vote suppression, but also deliberately manipulate vote totals. And with people like Walker, Scott, McCrory, etc. in charge, this is an important and understandable concern.
MFM008
(19,834 posts)In 2004 we had 2 or 3 recounts in the Governors race. Rossi won twice and the 3rd recount it flipped to Gregoire. She won by like 124 votes.
You count them until we win.
Save America
Save the world.
Cyberologist
(30 posts)sh...err crap.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)And the cost will be about 8 million.
tinrobot
(10,927 posts)I gave money on the faint hope they would find something. I doubt they will, but if I didn't give and they missed the recount, I'd be kicking myself.