As the weeks after the election are rolling by, people are finally coming to the realization that Donald Trump is going to be our next president. While some in our country celebrate, others are just trying to accept it and move on. Some members of the left still hold false hope that Hilary Clinton will somehow figure out a solution and actually become our next president. The newest found hope is the Jill Stein recount.
Over Thanksgiving break, a group of experts raised questions about three states that Clinton was expected to win but did not. These experts are quite certain that it could be a systematic polling error, but it is also possible that the results could have been hacked by Russians or other nefarious actors.
These claims were enough to get the former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein involved in a call for a recount. Stein has raised more than six million dollars since announcing that she has asked for a recount in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Stein says it’s not about changing the outcome at all, and that it’s about the principle of accurately counting votes. Even if this is true, when people hear about a recount, they get excited about the possibility of a change in outcome. While the recount is all over the news, spreading false hope, they are not telling people the crucial facts about it. The hard truth is, this recount is a waste in effort and here’s why:
The first reason is that there has been no evidence of voter fraud. Clinton’s lawyer wrote, “we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology”.
Secondly, it is very difficult to get a recount in these states. Right now in Wisconsin, Stein has taken all of the nessacary steps for a recount. She also delivered the $3.5 million estimated cost for the recount. The commission rejected Stein’s request to require the recount be done by hand. This now means that it is up to the counties’ discretion to conduct a hand count or not. They are also running out of time for the recount – it has to be completed by December 12. With the amount of time left and the amount of votes to count, it does not look good for Jill Stein’s recount. Similar situations are happening in Michigan and Pennsylvania, making it hard on the recount efforts.
The Clinton campaign knows that the recount will not be successful. The media has said that they are combining efforts with Stein, but it is not what it seems. Clinton’s campaign has been privately conducting post-election, but they have not helped with the recount. The campaign is “fully aware that the number of voters separating Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is the closest of these states but well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a recount”.
With the odds growing against Stein’s recount every day, the effort seems useless. In fact, it is making it harder for people to move on after the election. After these efforts fail, hopefully people will be ready to move on and we can start working toward more progressive change.