MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A local party official says Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will request a recount in Wisconsin.
George Martin, a member of the Wisconsin Green Party's coordinating council, says Stein's campaign will file the request by the state's 5 p.m. Friday deadline.
President-elect Donald Trump won Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by razor-thin margins and has a small lead in Michigan. All three states had been reliably Democratic in recent presidential elections.
Under Wisconsin law, Stein's campaign must show a basis for the recount in that state and cover costs. Stein has said she's concerned voting systems in the three states may have been hacked. Her campaign estimates a Wisconsin recount will cost $1.1 million.
As of Friday morning, Stein's campaign had raised $4.8 million to seek recounts in all three states.
The Wisconsin Green Party released this statement on Thursday:
The Stein/Baraka Green Party Campaign is launching an effort to ensure the integrity of our elections. They are filing presidential recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania-- three states where there is a significant need to verify machine-counted vote totals."After a divisive and painful presidential race, reported hacks into voter and party databases and individual email accounts are causing many American to wonder if our election results are reliable. These concerns need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust," states Dr. Jill Stein, 2016 Green Party presidential candidate.Today, the Green Party's Stein/Baraka Campaign is filing with the Wisconsin Elections Commission for the recount of presidential votes and will submit the state fee of $1.1 million to pay for it. Wisconsin is the first state in which Greens are filing for recounts during the next week. Beginning just a few days ago, people from all over the country have been donating directly to raise the millions of dollars to fund these recounts. More than half of the money has been raised already. The Greens do not accept corporate donations and work against the influence of money in politics.National recount lawyers, cyber, forensic and computer experts have urged that the campaign investigate the elections in WI, PA and MI due to notable variances between voting machine tallies and exit polls.Machines used in WI are outlawed in California because they can be easily tampered with or hacked. In standing up for Democracy, we investigate the integrity of the voting system itself, not merely to change the results of the election.Speaking in a personal capacity, Rev. Jennifer Nordstrom, the Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee states, “I believe in Democracy. If voting and data experts are telling us there are serious questions about accuracy and statistical anomalies, then we need to recount the votes.”
