Michigan: Trump files objection to Jill Stein-led election recount in Michigan | The Guardian

Donald Trump asked the state of Michigan on Thursday to reject Jill Stein’s request for a recount of the presidential election. Attorneys for the US president-elect argued in a filing to Michigan election officials that Stein was not entitled to the recount and that it could not be completed in time before the state must cast its electoral college votes. “Michigan should not grant this lawless, insulting request, and its voters should not risk having the Electoral College door knocked off its hinges, all because a one-percent candidate is dissatisfied with the election’s outcome,” Trump’s filing said. Trump accused Stein of creating an “electoral farce” and claimed that she “aims to sow doubts regarding the legitimacy of the presidential election”. Stein, who has also filed for recounts in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, described Trump’s move as an “attempt to undermine democracy” and assured supporters that the recount would go ahead.

Michigan: Trump campaign cites timing, cost, outcome in recount objection | Detroit Free Press

Saying that Michigan should not grant “this lawless, insulting request,” the campaign of President-elect Donald Trump filed an objection Thursday afternoon to a request to recount nearly 4.8 million votes cast for President in Michigan. Michigan’s “voters should not risk having the Electoral College door knocked off its hinges all because a 1% candidate is dissatisfied with the election’s outcome,” the objection stated. “Given her tiny vote total, (Green Party presidential candidate Jill) Stein does not and could not possibly allege a good faith belief that she may have won the state of Michigan.” The objection will put a hold on any recount of votes until the state Board of Canvassers can rule on the objection at a meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday. Once that ruling is made, Chris Thomas, director of the state Department of Elections, said the recount can’t start for two business days, which could mean a recount won’t start until next week. The recount had been scheduled to begin on Friday in Oakland and Ingham counties and continue throughout the weekend in the state’s largest 19 counties. All the weekend work has been postponed until the objection is resolved. State elections officials said it hoped to finish a recount by Dec. 10, but the legal filing puts that schedule in jeopardy.

Michigan: Strict voter ID bills lined up for possible passage | The Detroit News

Top Republican leaders in the Michigan Legislature are backing a strict voter identification proposal, setting the stage for potential passage in the session’s final two weeks. The House Elections Committee on Thursday advanced a three-bill package that would require voters to provide photo identification at their polling place or within 10 days of casting a provisional ballot on Election Day. “It solves the opportunity for voter fraud,” said House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, who intends to put the plan up for a floor vote. “Voter fraud is something that’s very difficult to be able to identify, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t protect the right to vote.” The proposal includes provisions allowing low-income voters to obtain a free birth certificate copy for the purposes of obtaining an ID, which is “great,” said Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo. “But the problem with all this is, it’s used to restrict the vote, that’s what the purpose of this is,” he said. “It’s about making sure (we) can keep certain people from the polls, folks who can’t otherwise obtain get IDs.”

Michigan: Bill aims to put recount costs on Stein campaign | WOOD

A Grand Rapids lawmaker has introduced legislation that would force leaders of the Michigan presidential recount effort and those requesting future statewide recounts to pick up the entire tab. State Rep. Lisa Pothumus Lyons, R-Alto, introduced the bill Thursday, which includes a retroactive date of Jan. 1, 2016. “The number grows every single day. It started out as $100,000 to $2 million. Now I’m gearing $4 million to $5 million,” said Lyons, referring to the estimated cost of the proposed recount. Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s campaign has picked up the first $900,000 and then some, but taxpayers may have to foot the rest of the bill. Republicans are asking, for what? “The candidate who is asking for the recount acknowledges that the outcome will not change, especially for her,” said Lyons.

North Carolina: Durham County faces Monday deadline to hold recount | News & Observer

Durham County must complete a recount of 90,000 votes by 7 p.m. Monday, according to a State Board of Elections order issued late Thursday. The state board voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to order a machine recount of votes cast during early voting in Durham County, backing a request from Republicans and Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign. The three Republicans on the board voted for the recount, saying that the late addition of the 90,000 votes to the statewide tally on election night constituted an “irregularity.” The state board’s decision overturned the Durham County Board of Elections, also controlled by Republicans, which had rejected the recount request as baseless. The recount could finally settle the governor’s race between McCrory and Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s attorney general.

Pennsylvania: Philladelphia allows recount, rejects forensic audit of voting machines | Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philadelphia city commissioners have agreed to recount some ballots cast in the city, as requested by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, but rejected a forensic audit of how those voting machines work. The commissioners, in a brief meeting Thursday, agreed to start recounting on Friday ballots in 75 divisions after Stein’s campaign filed at least three affidavits for each division from voters there asking for a recount. They rejected requests for seven other divisions. Philadelphia has 1,686 voting divisions. Ilann Maazel, an attorney for Stein’s campaign, told the commissioners the state Election Code allows for an examination of the machines. Citing examples of hacking of elections computer systems in Illinois and Arizona, along with the Democratic National Committee’s emails, he said a forensic audit of Philadelphia’s voting machine software was the only way to determine whether they had been hacked. “To examine means to look inside,” Maazel said.

Pennsylvania: Philadelphia moves forward with presidential election recount | PennLive

Philadelphia will recount ballots cast in 75 voting precincts on Friday, marking the first major success of Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s push to audit the state’s presidential election results. On Thursday, county election officials approved 75 of 82 voter petitions. In those precincts, voting machines will be recanvassed–essentially running them again to review the vote totals. An undetermined number of paper absentee, emergency and provisional ballots from those precincts will also be recounted. “It’s not a great number (of ballots),” Deputy Commissioner Fred Voigt said. “Keep in mind that something like 700,000 votes were cast in Philadelphia County. You’re talking (1,686) polling places. This is a speck.” Less than 5 percent of the county’s total precincts will be subject to the recount. According to Pennsylvania Department of State data, Hillary Clinton received 563,275 votes countywide compared to 105,876 for Donald Trump. Stein, meanwhile, received 6,486, slightly less than 1 percent of the total number cast.

Pennsylvania: Trump team moves to block Pennsylvania recount | Politico

Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump have moved to block the vote recount in Pennsylvania, adding to complaints filed to stop similar proceedings in Michigan and Wisconsin. “Despite being no more than a blip on the electoral radar, Stein has now commandeered Pennsylvania’s electoral process, with an eye toward doing the same to the Electoral College,” the complaint filed Thursday states. “There is no evidence — or even an allegation — that any tampering with Pennsylvania’s voting systems actually occurred.” The filing comes on the heels of the Trump camp’s complaint reported earlier Thursday in Michigan dismissing Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s claims of impropriety during the 2016 presidential race, and a day after the the Wisconsin Republican Party logged a complaint with the Federal Election Committee arguing that Stein was seeking to benefit Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton.

Wisconsin: ‘We’re Going to Get This Done’: Wisconsin Vote Recount Is Underway | The New York Times

The basement room was cleared of pens with blue or black ink, items that could mar paper ballots. Anyone wearing a coat was told to leave it in the hallway, in case something nefarious was hidden underneath. Water bottles, purses and keys were placed on the floor, leaving the large plastic tables smooth and uncluttered. And at 9 a.m., with the brisk rap of a county clerk’s wooden gavel, the first recount of the 2016 presidential election was underway in Wisconsin, with another recount pending in the neighboring battleground state of Michigan. For the next 12 days, election officials across all 72 counties in Wisconsin will work days, nights and weekends to recount nearly three million ballots, an effort initiated and financed by Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, who has suggested that voting machines in the state could have been hacked. Very few people expect that the recount will reverse the outcome of the election. President-elect Donald J. Trump triumphed here over Hillary Clinton by 22,177 votes, and in Michigan by 10,704 votes, a margin that a lawyer for Mrs. Clinton, Marc Elias, said had never been overcome in a recount. Legal challenges to the vote in Pennsylvania, where Mr. Trump leads by 70,638 votes, are also underway.

Wisconsin: Recount begins in Wisconsin, and it feels like Election Day again | Minneapolis Star Tribune

In the St. Croix County government building, just across the river from Minnesota, Thursday felt a bit like Election Day. Once again, county officials lugged in the heavy machines used to count ballots, set up a table for people to check in and prepared to brief a team of elections workers about the long day that lay ahead. Shortly after 9 a.m., after she’d ensured that everyone and everything was in place — the ballot counters, the political-party observers, the coffee pot and doughnuts — St. Croix County Clerk Cindy Campbell welcomed the 30 or so people gathered in the county’s board room. “This is a recount for the president of the United States,” she said. “It’s something I thought I’d never say, but we’re doing this.” Recount operations began across Wisconsin’s 72 counties on Thursday, following a request from Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who is footing the bill for the nearly $3.5 million effort. It is the first statewide recount prompted by a candidate since 2000, when Florida carried out a much-watched recount to settle the race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. Over the next 12 days, officials will recount nearly 3 million ballots.

Wisconsin: New evidence finds anomalies in Wisconsin vote, but no conclusive evidence of fraud | Walter R. Mebane, Jr./The Washington Post

Did the outcome of voting for president in Wisconsin accurately reflect the intentions of the electors? Concerns have been raised about errors in vote counts produced using electronic technology — were machines hacked? — and a recount may occur. Some reports involving statistical analysis of the results has been discussed in the media recently. These analyses, though, rely on data at the county level. Technology, demographics and other important characteristics of the electorate vary within counties, making it difficult to resolve conclusively whether voting technology (did voters cast paper or electronic ballots?) affected the final tabulation of the vote for president. For this reason, I have examined ward-level data. Wards are the smallest aggregation unit at which vote counts are reported in Wisconsin, and many wards have fewer than 100 voters. My analysis, which relies on using election forensics techniques designed to identify electoral fraud, reveals some reasons to be suspicious about vote patterns in Wisconsin. To be very clear, my analysis cannot prove whether fraud occurred, but it does suggest that it would be valuable to conduct an election audit to resolve such concerns definitively.

The Gambia: Officials engage in a count of marbles to determine the winner | Africanews

Gambia’s election Polls closed at 1700 on Thursday when officials began the process of counting the marbles that voters had cast for one of three presidential candidates. Voters on Thursday queued at polling stations all day to place a marble in one of three coloured ballot drums – green for President Yahya Jammeh, grey for Barrow and purple for the third candidate – former ruling party deputy Mama Kandeh. Gambian officials say the system is designed to avoid spoiled ballots and to simplify the process for illiterate voters. State Television announced results from two constituencies outside the capital Banjul showed a slight lead for Jammeh and opposition leader Adama Barrow close behind. Gambian authorities had cut the internet, barred international calls and sealed land borders. The election poses the first serious challenge to President Yahya Jammeh since he seized power in a coup 22 years ago.

Uzbekistan: Brand new leader, same old autocracy as Uzbeks go to polls | The Guardian

Uzbeks will elect a new leader for the first time in more than 25 years on Sunday. Just don’t expect a Trump-like upset. About 18 million people are eligible to vote for a successor to Islam Karimov, the long-time dictator who died in September after ruling Uzbekistan ever since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Karimov’s prime minister for the past 13 years, is set to step seamlessly into the shoes of his former boss and is widely expected to continue his predecessor’s autocratic rule. Mirziyoyev is likely to win a landslide following a lacklustre election campaign enlivened only by a wild (and probably false) rumour that the new regime had poisoned Gulnara Karimova, the late president’s socialite eldest daughter, and buried her in a secret grave. Mirziyoyev’s three challengers are all regime loyalists standing only to lend a democratic veneer to an election in a country that has no political opposition or free press.

National: Recounts Are Really About A Cyberattack Probe | international Business Times

Neither Jill Stein nor Hillary Clinton are realistically expecting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election to change if there are statewide recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Instead, Stein is pushing for contentious and exhaustive recount efforts in each state in part to draw attention to the integrity of the nationwide voting system after a campaign season chock-full of foreign interferences, cyberattacks on the Democratic Party and even a purported hack on electronic voting machines. Stein raised nearly $6.3 million in donations toward her goal of filing for recounts in three key battleground states where Trump won by small margins. “After a presidential election tarnished by the use of outdated and unreliable machines and accusations of irregularities and hacks, people of all political persuasions are asking if our election results are reliable,” Stein said in a statement on Monday. “We must recount the votes so we can build trust in our election system.”

National: Why is the U.S. voting infrastructure so fractured? | Center for Civic Design

I see you have questions about how elections work in the United States. Up until now, you probably haven’t thought much about how elections work and why someone’s experience in Massachusetts could be so different from yours in Alabama, or Florida, or Georgia, or Arkansas, or Montana, or Michigan, or Nevada, or California. You want to know why we’re not all doing the same things the same way. You want to know why there is no federal standard for ballot design or a national voting system. You want to fix things. Welcome. I’m glad you’re here. Let’s lift the curtain a bit on how U.S. elections get done. That should help you be involved in the right way at the right time to make elections better. From the 40,000-foot level, elections look roughly the same from state to state. This might lead you to think that because we end up with one result that the way elections are administered is pretty much the same across the country. But it’s not. If you move from Washington State to New York State, your experience and the process for registering, getting access to a ballot, and actually marking the ballot will be different, from one to the other.

National: Senators call for declassification of files on Russia’s role in US election | The Guardian

Seven Democratic and Democratic-aligned members of the Senate intelligence committee have hinted that significant information about Russian interference in the US presidential election remains secret and ought to be declassified. The seven senators, including the incoming ranking member Mark Warner of Virginia, wrote to Barack Obama to request he declassify relevant intelligence on the election. They did not directly accuse the Russian government or President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, of wrongdoing in the letter. “We believe there is additional information concerning the Russian government and the US election that should be declassified and released to the public. We are conveying specifics through classified channels,” wrote Warner and his colleagues Ron Wyden of Oregon, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and independent Angus King of Maine.

National: What Stein is getting from recount | The Hill

Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein’s call for a recount has won her headlines and money, both of which could prove beneficial to the politician and her party going forward. Stein’s call for a recount in Wisconsin might have come as a surprise to some observers. She won just 1 percent of the vote in the state and finished a distant fourth. Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the national popular vote, finished a close second to Republican Donald Trump in the Badger State. But it wasn’t her party asking for the recount. It was Stein, who has repeatedly shown a willingness to step into the public limelight to battle with both major parties. Stein hit the Clinton machine for piggy-backing on her recount efforts and for failing to take the threat of election hacking seriously. Seen as largely an afterthought during the presidential race, Stein is receiving heavy news coverage from the media for her efforts. And by tapping into Democratic angst over Trump’s surprise victory over Clinton, she’s building a fundraising apparatus greater than she had before.

National: Recount Bids in 3 States Seem the Longest of Long Shots | The New York Times

It has been nearly a month since Donald J. Trump beat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency. But efforts continue in three battleground states to take another look at the election results. On Thursday, Wisconsin is set to begin the labor-intensive task of reviewing nearly three million ballots in a recount across all of the state’s 72 counties. Michigan is likely to follow suit starting on Friday. And in Pennsylvania, there are persisting legal challenges to the presidential results as well. It is extremely unlikely that this attempt — spearheaded by Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate — will prompt any of these states to flip to Mrs. Clinton, as Mr. Trump leads by a combined margin of around 100,000 votes. Mrs. Clinton would need to be declared the winner in all three states to reverse the Electoral College outcome.

Editorials: The US election recount is a long shot – but the alternative is catastrophe | Rebecca Solnit/The Guardian

When big changes and dangers arise, you have to think big. You don’t put out a forest fire with a glass of water. Thinking small can prevent you from even recognizing trouble, let alone your options for overcoming it. There’s never been a time when thinking big matters more than now. Many across the United States are now trying to figure out how to survive Trump, but it may still be possible to stop him. His regime is not yet inevitable. It’s a long shot, but one worth trying, the way someone diagnosed with a disease with a 3% survival rate might want to do what it takes to try to be part of the 3%. You don’t get there if you give up at the outset. Trump represents a catastrophe on a scale many seem to have trouble grasping, an attack on what remains democratic and uncorrupted in our old and messy system of government, a threat to international stability, to efforts to address climate change, and to human rights at home and around the world. Is it possible to prevent him from taking power? Why not explore the wildest possibilities, when the alternative is surrendering to the worst? It may be very possible – but only if we imagine it is possible and work to make the possible the actual.

Louisiana: Investigation of Jefferson Parish ‘VIP’ voting machine now in DA’s hands | NOLA

A report by the Louisiana secretary of state’s office on the use of a Jefferson Parish voting machine reserved for “VIPs” has been turned over to the district attorney’s office. The state office would not release the findings of its election compliance unit on Tuesday (Nov. 29), however, citing a Louisiana law that shields “records pertaining to pending criminal litigation or any criminal litigation which can be reasonably anticipated” until the case is closed. The machine had been kept in a private conference room at Registrar of Voters Dennis DiMarco’s office in Elmwood during the early voting period leading to the Nov. 8 elections. It was not available to the general public. DiMarco said he and some of his staff let certain people use it to avoid waiting in line.

Michigan: Jill Stein Files Petition for Hand Recount of Michigan Ballots | Wall Street Journal

Green Party candidate Jill Stein on Wednesday filed a petition for a full hand recount of presidential votes in Michigan, the last state to officially certify its election results this week. The state on Monday certified that President-elect Donald Trump had officially won by slightly more than 10,000 votes, a 0.22% margin. Ms. Stein, who has also successfully called for a recount in Wisconsin and has filed a lawsuit seeking one in Pennsylvania, alleges that machines used to count the votes in these states could have been hacked or tampered with. Barring a court challenge by Mr. Trump, the recount in Michigan is expected to start Friday. At a press conference, Ms. Stein’s campaign said it had paid $970, 000 at the time that the petition was filed. Her recount efforts have raised over $6.6 million, and Ms. Stein has said her campaign will shoulder the cost of the process. Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said in a statement Wednesday that there is “no evidence of hacking or fraud, or even a credible allegation of any tampering.” She added that Michigan taxpayers could be paying up $4 million, in addition to the $1 million that Ms. Stein will have to foot.

Michigan: Jill Stein’s Michigan recount efforts | CBS

Green Party candidate Jill Stein formally filed for a recount in Michigan Wednesday, the third state on her list. “After a presidential election tarnished by the use of outdated and unreliable machines and accusations of irregularities, people of all political persuasions are asking if our election results are reliable,” Stein said Wednesday. “We must recount the votes so we can build trust in our election system. We need to verify the vote in this and every election so that Americans can be sure we have a fair, secure and accurate voting system.” Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said in a statement Wednesday that it is “unusual” for a candidate that received such a small share of the vote — Stein got just 1 percent in Michigan — to request a recount, “especially when there is no evidence of hacking or fraud, or even a credible allegation of any tampering.”

Michigan: GOP warns recount puts Michigan’s electors at risk | The Detroit News

Michigan Republican Party leaders warned Tuesday a massive and costly statewide recount of the presidential election could drag on for weeks and cost the state its final say in who occupies the White House next year. Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s recount request, expected to be filed Wednesday afternoon, will trigger a hurried sprint to meet a Dec. 13 federal deadline for Michigan to declare a final winner in the presidential contest, GOP officials said. “If we don’t have this process over by Dec. 13, we certainly jeopardize Michigan’s electors and risk disenfranchising all of Michigan’s voters from the election,” said Eric Doster, general counsel for the Michigan Republican Party. State election officials say their reading of 19th century federal law shows the state has to finalize the election results six days before the Dec. 19 meeting of the Electoral College, when each state’s electors cast the final vote for president. Michigan gets 16 electors who are supposed to cast their votes in the state Senate’s chamber.

Michigan: Lame duck bills would change Michigan’s voter ID requirements | MLive

Most Michigan voters would have to present an ID card for their votes to count under legislation that popped up suddenly during Michigan’s lame-duck session. Currently voters who are registered but do not have a voter ID can fill out an affidavit attesting to their identity and then vote. House Bills 6066, 6067 and 6068, introduced Tuesday, would change that. Under the bills a voter without ID would fill out a provisional ballot. That ballot would only be counted if the voter returned to their clerk’s office within 10 days to show either a photo ID or present evidence they are either indigent and can’t afford an ID or have a religious objection to having their photo taken. “I can’t emphasize how simple this is. If you want your vote to count, you must prove your identity,” said Rep. Lisa Lyons, R-Alto, who sponsored the bills. The bills also allow indigent voters to receive free birth certificates and IDs.

Nevada: De La Fuente files for recount in Nevada | KOLO

After withdrawing his presidential recount petition in Wisconsin, “Rocky” Roque De La Fuente almost immediately filed for a recount in Nevada. De La Fuente was the first to file for a recount in Wisconsin but withdrew his petition when Jill Stein duplicated his effort and the estimated cost of the recount soared to more than $3.5 million. He has already posted payment for the recount in Nevada. “I’ve made this decision for a number of reasons,” said De La Fuente. “First, Wisconsin obviously made a recount cost-prohibitive for a citizen with standing. Jill (Stein) was able to tap into a Democratic base of donors to raise more than $6.2 million in just a few days, so she can afford to pursue the issue there.”

North Carolina: Partial Recount Ordered in North Carolina Governor’s Race | The New York Times

Acceding to the wishes of the embattled Gov. Pat McCrory, the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Wednesday ordered a recount of roughly 94,000 votes in Durham County, a move that could help resolve a contested governor’s race here that remains undecided three weeks after Election Day. Mr. McCrory, a Republican, has trailed by a thin margin in the unofficial statewide count since the Nov. 8 election. He has declined to concede the race to his opponent, Roy Cooper, a Democrat and the state’s attorney general. Mr. McCrory’s campaign has raised questions about voting irregularities in dozens of counties, but Democrats have dismissed them as frivolous or inaccurate. Until Wednesday night, many of the rulings of the state elections board and 100 county boards — all of which are controlled by Republicans — have tended to go against Mr. McCrory. Mr. Cooper’s campaign and liberal groups have been urging Mr. McCrory to concede.

North Carolina: Elections board orders Durham County recount in party-line vote | News & Observer

The State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to order a machine recount of 90,000 votes in Durham County, backing a request from Republicans and Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign. The three Republicans on the board voted for the recount, saying that the late addition of the 90,000 votes to the statewide tally on election night constituted an “irregularity.” The two Democrats on the board opposed the recount, arguing that no evidence suggested any mistakes in counting Durham votes. “What harm would it do to scan these votes and count them?” said board member and retired Judge James Baker, a Republican. “It’s not likely to change anything. There was enough of an irregularity to make people wonder.”

Texas: Was Trump’s Voter Fraud Claim Inspired By Gregg Phillips’ Tweet? | Austin American-Statesman

The Sunday after the presidential election, Gregg Phillips, founder of a health care analytics firm in Austin, Texas, tweeted, “We have verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens. We are joining @truethevote to initiate legal action.” The next day, Phillips’s assertion, based solely on his tweet, was splashed across the InfoWars site – run by Austin conspiracy theorist Alex Jones – that has become an agitprop site for President-elect Donald Trump, with the headline, “Report: Three Million Votes in Presidential Election Cast by Illegal Aliens. Trump may have won popular vote.” It was quickly picked up by the Drudge Report, a premier aggregator of the web with its own pro-Trump bent, which changed “Report” to “Claim.” Phillips, a former executive with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and prolific tweeter on voting fraud, was astonished his tweet was given such prominence. No one had called him.

Wisconsin: Stein won’t appeal machine recount; GOP files complaint | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Green Party candidate Jill Stein will not appeal a judge’s rejection of her lawsuit to force a hand recount of nearly 3 million presidential ballots in Wisconsin, clearing the way for machines to be used in the statewide effort beginning Thursday. Also Wednesday, Stein filed another recount petition in Michigan and the Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a federal elections complaint against both Stein and Democrat Hillary Clinton. The complaint alleges that Stein — who received only a small share of the vote — is improperly fundraising to pay for a recount that primarily benefits Clinton, the second-place finisher behind GOP President-elect Donald Trump. The fundraising amounts to improper coordination between the two campaigns, the complaint to the Federal Elections Commission alleges. “Clinton stands as the only actor that would benefit from a recount taking place in Wisconsin or elsewhere,” the complaint reads. “As outlined below, the Clinton campaign’s direct involvement in the recount process, which was announced well before the recount itself was paid for and finalized, demonstrates a clear link between the actions of the Stein campaign and the strategic goals of Hillary for America.” The complaint is based on the public actions and statements of the Clinton and Stein campaigns and not on any inside information.

Verified Voting in the News: How the Wisconsin Recount Could Help Fix American Elections | TIME

Even if the recount of Wisconsin’s election results doesn’t change a single vote, the scrutiny could have one useful side effect: Spotlighting how scattershot the American voting system has become. Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein is leading the effort for a recount after claims surfaced that there was statistical evidence the state’s results were suspicious. Many supporters of the recount worry that Russian hackers might have thrown the contest to President-elect Donald Trump, who won the state by 24,081 votes out of nearly 3 million cast. Skeptics have thrown cold water on the claim, arguing that the data does not support this claim in any convincing way. But right now it’s almost impossible to disprove the suspicion that voting machines were somehow compromised because Wisconsin’s voting machines are so inconsistent from one location to the next.