Recount 2016 is over in Wisconsin with a reaffirmation that GOP standard-bearer Donald Trump won the state and its 10 electoral votes after 3 million votes were reviewed.
The Jill Stein-prompted recount effort is also over in Pennsylvania and Michigan, with President-elect Trump capturing 20 and 16 electoral votes, respectively.
In short, nothing has changed since Election Night 2016 when Trump overcame Hillary Clinton’s so-called blue wall.
Green Party candidate Stein, who only received about one percent of the vote in those three battleground states, never sought recounts in states narrowly won by Hillary Clinton. Stein paid the state of Wisconsin $3.5 million to implement the recount and will either be on the hook for an additional fee or get a refund if it was less expensive than that, once officials calculate the final cost.
In Wisconsin, Trump apparently picked up 162 net votes on the way to a 22,000-plus victory as certified by the State Elections Commission. “But after recounting nearly 3 million ballots, little changed. The final results changed by fewer than 1,800 votes…Wisconsin’s recount uncovered no widespread problems or hacking as Stein had suggested, without evidence, that there might be,” AP reported .
“Based on the recount, they can have confidence that Wisconsin’s election results accurately reflect the will of the people, regardless of whether they are counted by hand or by machine,” said Wisconsin Elections Commission Chairman Mark Thomsen after the last four counties out of 72 certified their results.
“This recount was never about changing the outcome; it was about validating the vote and restoring confidence in our voting system to Americans across the country who have doubts,” Jill Stein claimed in a statement , according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel .
Some political observers believe that the Stein recount 2016 fundraising effort was more about gaining ballot access for the Green Party in future elections.
As far as Pennsylvania is concerned, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond today tossed out the Green Party’s lawsuit to force a statewide recount. The judge ruled that “Stein’s allegation of possible election tampering ‘borders on the irrational.’ Diamond also cited the delay between Election Day and Stein’s decision to file the lawsuit, and said Stein didn’t have standing to sue on the issue,” CBS News explained .
Pennsylvania certified its results today, confirming Trump’s 44,000-plus vote win over Clinton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgfRHTmFg4E
Standing is a legal concept that requires the party filing a lawsuit to actually be injured in some way as a prerequisite for going forward with the case.
Last week, a Michigan federal judge lifted his recount order after three days of reviewing ballots and abided by a state appeals court order that Stein, similarly, was not an aggrieved party and therefore lacked standing to compel a recount. On Friday, the Michigan Supreme Court denied Stein’s appeal. “The Michigan Secretary of State said Friday that because the recount was halted before it was finished, the results certified on Nov. 28 stand,” NBC News detailed . Trump prevailed in Michigan by about 11,000 votes.
Before the Michigan recount ended, the only discrepancies were found in Wayne County , a jurisdiction that heavily favored Hillary Clinton, as the Inquisitr previously noted.
Under federal law, state officials must certify the outcome by tomorrow in order for a state’s election tally to be included when the Electoral College formally meets on December 19. “Stein could appeal [Diamond’s] decision, but time is short: all states must certify their election results by this Tuesday, so it’s unlikely any new action could be taken before then,” CBS added.
Those recounts unable to be completed by the federal deadline could have prevented or delayed the transition of power to the new president.
Although there is a lot of media and Clinton operative chatter about alleged Russian hacking of the election process, Donald Trump is on track to become the 45th president, which came as a total surprise to the poll-obsessed mainstream media who insisted that Hillary Clinton was a lock to win the White House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGPRwbi5iA0
[Featured Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]