Green Party presidential contender Jill Stein has led an effort this week that has raised millions of dollars to fund recounts in three swing states, is calling for “automatic, mandatory recounts.”
“Why must people pay to ensure their elections are fair? We need automatic, mandatory recounts to verify every election result,” Stein tweeted Sunday morning.
Why must people pay to ensure their elections are fair? We need automatic, mandatory recounts to verify every election result. #Recount2016
— Dr. Jill Stein? (@DrJillStein) November 27, 2016
On Friday, because of Stein’s efforts, Wisconsin became the first of the battleground states to receive an official request for a recount. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign is also participating in the recount campaign.
Stein claims she is not pushing for the recounts in support of Clinton, but is instead hoping to address reports of discrepancies in counties where President-elect Trump earned far more votes than expected and possible hackings of electronic voting machines.
Stein, who won only about 1 percent of the popular vote nationwide, doesn’t stand to gain much personally from the recounts. However, if recounts in all three battleground states were overturned, they would hand Clinton enough Electoral College votes to snag the election away from Trump.
Trump sent out a seven-tweet salvo Sunday morning against the recount campaign, calling it “sad” and promising “nothing will change.”
Also chiming in on the recounts Sunday was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who said, “No one expects there to be profound change, but there’s nothing wrong with going through the process.”
But, he added, the “Green Party does have the “legal right” to request recounts. “We have recounts. Probably almost every election, there’s a recount,” Sanders said.
