Wacky Jill Stein's Next to the Last Steps

We haven't heard the last of her yet.

PENNSYLVANIA
Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein appealed a decision by the Philadelphia City Commissioners on Dec. 1, denying her request for an audit. She has continued to push the recount effort, largely because she can raise millions of dollars for the Green Party and herself.

Philadelphia's Common Pleas Court, Judge Abbe Fletman, in a written opinion issued Wednesday, said Stein “is mistaken” in her claim that the state Election Code gives her a right to the audit she requested.

The difference in voting totals is still less than Pennsylvania’s 0.5 percent to trigger for an automatic statewide recount. On Monday, the judge denied Stein’s second request for a forensic audit of voting machines used in the city.

In Philadelphia, a central computer system is used to program cartridges, which are inserted into the voting machines before the election. After the election, those cartridges, are plugged back into the central system to tally the votes. The so-called “closed system,” from the programming of the cartridges, to the machines, to the tabulation of votes, is not connected to the internet or other computers. Deputy City Solicitor Benjamin Field argued Tuesday, “There is no evidence to suggest that Philadelphia’s elections were anything but secure.

MICHIGAN
Michigan’s recount was halted on Wednesday, after the Michigan Court of Appeals agreed that Stein is not an “aggrieved candidate” and therefore the count must stop. Stein received fewer than 1% of the vote, which made her “statically irrelevant.”

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith set aside his original ruling that the recount could begin. He stated that, even though Stein raised serious issues about the integrity of Michigan’s electoral system, she offered only “speculative claims” and nothing indicating “actual injury.”

John Bursch, attorney for Michigan’s Republican Attorney General, Bill Schuette, who had challenged Stein’s case for a recount, praised Goldsmith’s decision. “This ruling is a huge victory for Michigan taxpayers and the rule of law,” Bursch reportedly said in a statement.

The recount has been costing the state $12 million, despite any evidence of technical errors or fraud. “This is a victory for the taxpayers and voters of Michigan,” said Ronna Romney McDaniel, chairman of the state Republican Party.

Ms.  McDaniel, who is Mitt Romney's niece; has just been named the next RNC chair to fill the position vacated by Reince Priebus who has been named Trump’s Chief of Staff.

After the Michigan Court’s ruling against continuing the recount, Stein declared: “We are not backing down from this fight ― a fight to protect the hard-fought, hard-won civil and voting rights of all Americans. Our campaign will seek immediate relief in Michigan’s Supreme Court to ensure the recount that is already underway in all Michigan counties continues,” Hayley Horowitz and Jessica Clarke, the Stein campaign’s lead lawyers in Michigan, said in a statement. “With so many irregularities in Michigan ― there is a real possibility the rights of voters in Michigan may have been suppressed during this election.”

Today, December 14, presidential vote recount in Michigan may have turned up massive voter inaccuracies. Now it’s Republican leaders who are demanding an investigation to determine why a third of the city’s voting machines registered more ballots than actual voters, the Detroit News reported. Ruth Johnson, the Republican Secretary of State, is launching an audit.

Republican state Sen. Patrick Colbeck called the probe a good start regarding the suspicious results turned up in Detroit, where Hillary Clinton won with 95 percent of the vote. The Detroit News found voting scanning machines at 248 of the city’s 662 precincts — 37 percent — tabulated more ballots than the number of actual voters counted in the poll books. Wisconsin

WISCONSIN
The Wisconsin recount ended a day before the Dec. 13 deadline. Stein told newspaper The Detroit Free Press that, so far, the recount appeared to be exposing problems with Michigan's election process, particularly in low income, minority communities.

However, the Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair officially declared Republican President-elect Donald Trump the winner in the state. In fact, his margin over former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton increased by 162 votes. So, thank you, Jill Stein.

Stein’s two and a half-week fundraising drive drew in approximately $7.33 million from 161,300 donors. The campaign claims this is the largest-ever people-powered effort to verify the results of a presidential election in United States’ history.

“It was an amazing affirmation of the power of the American people to have a voice in their voting system and demand elections with integrity,” Stein said in a press release. However, the effort failed to bring “election integrity” back to the system. In fact, her initiative, for the most part, has been a colossal failure.

The campaign calculated the total cost of the recount efforts to be over $7.4 million, approximately $3.5 million of which was paid for by Wisconsin state filing fees. “The total was raised to $9.5 million only after the Wisconsin Elections Commission suddenly and unexpectedly increased the fee for the recount by $2.4 million on November 28,” according to the statement.

The campaign expects some costs to be overestimated and to receive funds back from the uncompleted Michigan recount. Any refunded state filing fees will be donated, according to the release.

David Cobb, Stein’s campaign manager, said in the release the campaign has been “fully transparent” about its recount intentions. “It’s regrettable that states, especially Wisconsin, dramatically increased the costs of what should have been a routine democratic process,” Cobb said. “But the people of this country were not deterred. And just as we have for decades, the Green Party will continue to be a voice for all Americans – whether on the streets, in the courthouse or at the ballot box.”

Ilann Maazel, an attorney for Stein’s campaign repeated vague claims made about voting machines being “extremely vulnerable” to hacking and that they could have been manipulated; but nothing could be substantiated. Closing remarks were: “The Court’s decision will deny voters the chance to know the truth about this election.”

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