The Green Party’s presidential candidate, Jill Stein, announced that she would pay for recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Stein explained why she wanted a recount, stating, “This has been a hack-riddled election. We have going machines that are extremely hack-friendly in an election that’s been very contentious.” Stein’s goal to raise $2.5 million was then turned into a goal of raising $4.5 million. Jill Stein explained the total cost, estimating $2-3 million in attorney’s fees with additional money for the actual recount, totaling about $6-7 million. This is particularly a lot of money for the Green Party since this year’s election was a record high for the amount of money raised from donors, $3,509,477. As of November 24th, it was reported that the Green Party had raised $3,875,502 towards recount efforts.
Wisconsin is now the first state to start the presidential election recount. Polls predicted that Clinton would win Wisconsin; however Trump took this victory with less than a percentage point. Mike Haas, Wisconsin’s chief elections administrator, stated, “This is certainly not Bush v. Gore.” Stein was pushing for all recounts to be done by hand; however she lost the court challenge although many counties will recount ballots manually. Milwaukee county, the biggest county in the state, will feed the ballots to the same machines used on election night. In Dane County, the ballots will be counted by hand where Clinton won 71 percent of the vote. Dane County workers are now being paid $20 an hour, working two shifts for 12 hours a day, to have the recount done by December 12, 2016. County Clerk Scott McDonell stated, “ I think we will be very close to what was reported on election night.” Donald Trump won with 47.9% (1,409,467), Hillary Clinton with 46.9% (1,382,210), Gary Johnson with 3.6% (106,442), and Jill Stein with 1.1% (30,980).
