We continue yesterday’s discussion about the Green Party’s puzzling demand for vote recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Dr. Jill Stein, the party’s 2016 presidential candidate who garnered 1 percent of the national vote and zero electoral votes, filed court actions to force the recounts, even though support for the party in those three states was very low and was expected to be. The battle in all states essentially was between Republican Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton; all other parties barely registered on the election-vote radar. In the targeted recount states, however, the margin of victory between Trump and Clinton was slim.
Intimating that the Green Party has reason to believe that both the votes and the voting process might have been compromised Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—although no complaints have been filed and Stein admits the party has no evidence of vote tampering—Stein says the recounts are meant to “protect the integrity” of the voting process.
Stein’s recounts are being funded by donors and supporters; the cash-strapped party has raised $7.1 million of the $9.5 million it will cost. But while Stein touts this as proof of brisk support for her just launched “vote-integrity” project, both she and the party are embroiled in a firestorm of criticism.