Just when we thought 2016 presidential election news was dying down, there’s another intense update: Green Party candidate Jill Stein has raised more than $6 million to begin recounts of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan votes, The New York Times reports. Throughout Election Night, viewers kept a close eye on these three states, which Donald Trump ultimately won with close figures.
Stein demands these recounts because of experts finding “statistical anomalies” in all of the states’ results. Public opinion polls had also hinted at Hillary Clinton winning the states. “After a divisive and painful presidential race, reported hacks into voter and party databases and individual email accounts are causing many Americans to wonder if our election results are reliable,” Stein said, according to NBC News. “These concerns need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust.”
As of now, the campaign has enough funds to cover WI’s $1.1 million filing due Nov. 25, while it has called for another million dollars to submit next week’s filing fees in PA and MI. The money piled up so fast that the campaign is now close to its goal of $7 million, which would pay for all three states. Wisconsin has agreed to do the recount, USA Today reports, but they won’t do it by hand, which is what Stein wanted. It will be harder to force a recount in Pennsylvania due to stricter laws.
“In true grassroots fashion, we’re turning to you, the people, and not big-money corporate donors to make this happen,” Stein’s website reads.
Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton’s team joined the push for Wisconsin to recount, The New York Times reports. They said they would also join any potential recounts that come up in two other controversial states, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
While many, including the Clinton campaign, don’t believe votes were hacked in these states, or that a recount would change anything, Clinton’s team wants to assure her supporters that they are doing everything possible to verify these results.
According to the Times, Trump currently leads inn Wisconsin by 22,177 votes, in Michigan by 10,704 votes and in Pennsylvania by 70,638 votes. That’s not a lot of votes, but USA Today reports that a statewide recount in Wisconsin in 2011 only changed 300 votes. Clinton currently leads the popular vote by over 2 million votes, according to CNN‘s Presidential Election Results 2016.