A Clinton recount comeback is improbable, not impossible

Published November 28, 2016 6:14pm ET



Jill Stein has told the Democratic faithful that there’s a chance Donald Trump’s dramatic upset could be reversed. And in theory, the presidential nominee of the Green Party is right.

Of the thousands of statewide elections held since 2000, FiveThirtyEight’s Carl Bialik points out, only 27 contests have triggered recounts and only three have reversed the original result. Statistically, that makes Clinton’s path to the White House an extreme long shot, not an absolute impossibility. But the odds are a lot longer if you assume (in the absence of any evidence to the contrary) there hasn’t been a massive mistabulation in multiple states.

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