2016 United States presidential election recount and audit

  Recounts in progress or pending.

  Recount petitions withdrawn.

2016 U.S. presidential election
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Following Republican nominee Donald Trump's presumed electoral college victory in the United States presidential election of 2016, a group of computer scientists, cyber security experts, and election monitors raised concerns about the integrity of the election results. They urged the campaign staff of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who had conceded the campaign on November 9,^[1] to petition for a recount in three key states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.^[2] When the Clinton campaign declined to file for recounts, Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein agreed to spearhead the recount effort on November 23. The Clinton team subsequently pledged to support the recount efforts "in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides,"^[3][4] while President-elect Trump and his supporters filed legal motions in all three states to prevent the recounts.^[5]

Background

After the election, a group of prominent computer scientists and election lawyers including J. Alex Halderman (director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society) and John Bonifaz (founder of the National Voting Rights Institute) requested a more thorough investigation into the possibility of a cyber-attack and an election recount in three battleground states (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan)^[6] where President-elect Trump had narrow victories of less than 1%.^[7] Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes (0.2%), Pennsylvania by 49,543 (0.8%), and Wisconsin by 27,257 votes (0.7%).

According to the findings, Clinton's votes were 7% lower than expected in counties that used electronic machines to tally votes, as opposed to using paper ballots and optical scanners.^[8][9] Statistician Nate Silver performed a regression analysis which demonstrated that the alleged discrepancy between paper ballots and electronic voting machines "completely disappears once you control for race and education level".^[10] On November 23, Halderman wrote,

"I believe the most likely explanation is that the polls were systematically wrong, rather than that the election was hacked. But I don’t believe that either one of these seemingly unlikely explanations is overwhelmingly more likely than the other."^[11]

A funding campaign to cover the legal costs raised more than $2.5 million in under 24 hours^[12] and reached $6.7 million as of November 30, 2016.^[13]

Filings

Wisconsin

On November 25, 90 minutes before the deadline, having raised nearly $6 million in donations,^[14] Stein filed a petition to the Wisconsin Elections Commission for a recount of the state's votes. A request for a recount was also made by Independent presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente.^[15] In Wisconsin, a recount would involve a manual examination of all three million ballots, with a completion deadline of December 13.

On November 26, the Clinton campaign's general counsel Marc Elias stated that their campaign would join Stein's recount efforts in Wisconsin and possibly others "in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides." He also noted that, "Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not planned to exercise this option ourselves."^[3][16]

On November 28, the Wisconsin Elections Commission rejected Stein's request for a hand recount of all votes, and Stein sought to overturn the decision in court.^[17][18] On November 29, after Stein paid $3.5 million needed to initiate a recount, the Wisconsin Elections Commission ordered a recount in the state to begin on December 1.^[19]

Several academics and specialists submitted testimony in support of Stein's lawsuit seeking a recount.^[20] Poorvi Vora of George Washington University stated that vote-scanning machinery could be infected with malware that changes the record of votes, and a manual count of paper ballots would be the only way to know if there had been vote manipulation.^[20] Professor Philip Stark from the University of California also claimed that Trump’s winning margin in Wisconsin could easily be within the margin of error for optical voting systems.^[20]

On December 2, a Trump Super PAC filed a federal lawsuit to halt the recount in Wisconsin arguing that it fails the Supreme Court’s test for Equal Protection in the recount process established in Bush v. Gore.^[21] U.S. District Judge James Peterson denied the emergency halt to the recount, allowing the process to continue at least until a Dec. 9 court hearing.^[22]

As of December 2, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported that over 500 Wisconsin precincts, or roughly one-seventh of all of the state's precincts, had completed their recounts thus far, resulting in Stein gaining 24 votes, Trump gaining 5, and Clinton gaining 3.^[23]

Pennsylvania

Stein announced on November 25 that she intended to file for similar recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.^[24] She did so in Pennsylvania on November 28,^[25] seven days after the official deadline of November 21, by applying to a court and asking them to order a recount.^[26][27]

On December 2, Trump and the Pennsylvania Republican Party asked a court to dismiss the recount.^[28] They argued Pennsylvania law does not permit a court-ordered recount, and a Green Party lawyer acknowledged that the lawsuit was without precedent in the state.^[29]

On December 3, Stein and the Green Party formally withdrew their lawsuit seeking a statewide recount in Pennsylvania, stating that they were unable to produce the required $1 million bond before the court-ordered deadline at 5:00pm on December 5, which would have followed a court hearing on whether to proceed with the case that was scheduled for earlier that same day.^[30][29]

Michigan

Stein filed for a manual recount in Michigan on November 30, paying the $973,250 fee required for filing.^[31] The recount policy in Michigan is to count every ballot manually.^[32] A manual count is required because the machines used to vote have no audit trail features.^[33] According to Stein a recount in Michigan should be pursued because of a "sky-high number of blank votes" for the presidency.^[33] Despite the money raised by Stein, Ruth Johnson, the Michigan Secretary of State, said that the recounting process might require up to $4 million of Michigan taxpayers' money.^[34]

On December 1, the Trump campaign challenged Michigan's recount arguing that the recount couldn't be finished on time and that Stein's petition wasn't properly notarized, delaying the planned recount which was to begin the next day.^[35] On December 2, with the Michigan's Board of State Canvassers deadlocked 2-2, along party lines, the recount in Michigan was to proceed on December 6, barring court action, which Bill Schuette the Michigan Attorney General has requested.^[36]

Nevada

On November 30, American Delta Party/Reform Party presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente requested a recount in five counties in Nevada and paid the $14,000 fee required for the effort.^[37]

Reactions

On November 26, Trump released a statement,^[38] speaking out against Stein's decision, calling the recount a "scam" whose real aim is to fill the Green Party's coffers, and saying that "the election is over".^[39] Stein responded by saying the donations for the recount are "all going into a dedicated and segregated account so that it can only be spent on the recount."^[40] Recount accounts are covered under the Federal Election Commission Advisory Opinion 2006—24,^[41] which left the use of any remaining funds to be settled by the FEC at a later time.

A November 26 statement from the Obama administration acknowledged Russian efforts to undermine the election, but expressed confidence in the integrity of the electoral infrastructure, indicating that the results of the election "accurately reflect the will of the American people."^[42][43] On November 27, the White House released another statement saying, “the federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyberactivity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on Election Day.”^[44]

That same day, Trump used Twitter to allege that "serious voter fraud" had occurred in California, New Hampshire, and Virginia,^[45] and claimed, without evidence, that "millions of people" voted illegally.^[46][47][48] NBC News reported that this conspiracy theory was popularized by Infowars, a website owned by Alex Jones.^[49]

According to Politico, many of Clinton's closest allies were "irritated with Jill Stein" and did not believe that the recount will change the election's results, though they did feel that they had an obligation to participate.^[50]

Stein's running mate Ajamu Baraka opposed the recount efforts, writing in a Facebook post, "The recount effort has resulted in serious questions regarding the motivations of the recount that threatens to damage the standing and reputation of the Green Party, its supporters and activists". He also told CNN, "It would be seen as carrying the water for the Democrats". The Green Party's Maryland Senate candidate Margaret Flowers circulated an open letter, which has signatures from many prominent Green Party members, opposing the recount. The letter read, "While we support electoral reforms, including how the vote is counted, we do not support the current recount being undertaken by Jill Stein".^[51]

See also

• Elections in the United States
• Florida election recount

References

External links