With just days before Allegheny County must certify the results of the 2016 presidential election, Green Party candidate Jill Stein again is demanding to examine the electronic voting machines used here. Candidates have a right to examine voting machines, the campaign argued in a filing Wednesday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, and “the Board of Elections improperly denied Dr. Stein the ability to exercise that right by refusing her request to have experts … determine whether they were working properly and had not been tampered with.” It was not clear Wednesday when a hearing might be held on the matter, but time is short. Allegheny County is set to certify its results on Dec. 12. Pennsylvania must certify statewide returns the following day. Meanwhile, Michigan’s presidential recount was halted Wednesday after three days, assuring Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the state, when a federal judge said he’ll abide by a court ruling that found Dr. Stein couldn’t seek another look at the vote.
The local dispute began Nov. 28, when more than 300 Allegheny County residents petitioned to retabulate the results compiled by voting machines in their districts. They also sought to have the machines themselves examined for signs of hacking — a rising concern this year in light of widely reported hacks of Democratic Party emails and state voter-registration databases
The county fulfilled the first request in 52 county precincts, mostly concentrated in Pittsburgh. On Monday morning, officials conducted a recanvass in which they compared the numbers stored on voting-machine memory cards with the results reported on Election Night. That review did not turn up any inconsistencies. But county officials have resisted calls to submit the machines themselves to analysis, arguing that the Elections Division already verifies the programming of 20 randomly selected machines — out of more than 4,000 in use — prior to each election.
That left many recount supporters unsatisfied. “I’m disappointed that they didn’t actually verify the accuracy of the machines,” said Alina Keebler, a Point Breeze recount supporter. “All they did was see if the number of votes coincided” with the earlier returns.
Full Article: Early Returns.