{"id":57704,"date":"2016-11-26T18:04:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-26T22:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=57704"},"modified":"2016-11-26T18:12:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T22:12:01","slug":"clinton-campaign-will-participate-in-wisconsin-recount-with-an-eye-on-outside-interference-lawyer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=57704","title":{"rendered":"Clinton campaign will participate in Wisconsin recount, with an eye on \u2018outside interference,\u2019 lawyer says"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matt Zapotosky
\nThe Washington Post<\/p>\n

\"Leaders<\/a>

Hillary Clinton addresses the Children\u2019s Defense Fund\u2019s Beat the Odds celebration at the Newseum. (Cliff Owen\/Associated Press)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign has been quietly exploring whether there was any \u201coutside interference\u201d in the election results and will participate in the election recount in Wisconsin initiated by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, a Clinton campaign lawyer revealed Saturday.<\/p>\n

In a Medium post<\/a>, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias said that the campaign had received \u201chundreds of messages, emails, and calls urging us to do something, anything, to investigate claims that the election results were hacked and altered in a way to disadvantage Secretary Clinton,\u201d especially in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the \u201ccombined margin of victory for Donald Trump was merely 107,000 votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Green party files for recount of presidential votes in Wisconsin<\/h3>\n

Leaders of the Green Party in Wisconsin said on Nov. 25 that they are filing a request for a reconciliation of paper records in Wisconsin, to ensure the accuracy of the tally in the U.S. presidential election. Hillary Clinton’s campaign said on Nov. 26 that it will participate in the recount, exploring whether there was any \u201coutside interference\u201d in the election results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Elias said the campaign had \u201cnot uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology.\u201d But because of the margin of victory \u2014 and because of the degree of apparent foreign interference during the campaign \u2014 Elias said that Clinton officials had \u201cquietly taken a number of steps in the last two weeks to rule in or out any possibility of outside interference in the vote tally in these critical battleground states.\u201d He said that they would also participate in the Stein-initiated recount<\/a> in Wisconsin, and if Stein made good on efforts to prompt similar processes in Pennsylvania and Michigan, they would do so there, as well.<\/p>\n

[Why are people giving Jill Stein millions of dollars for an election recount?<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThe campaign is grateful to all those who have expended time and effort to investigate various claims of abnormalities and irregularities,\u201d Elias said. \u201cWhile that effort has not, in our view, resulted in evidence of manipulation of results, now that a recount is underway, we believe we have an obligation to the more than 64 million Americans who cast ballots for Hillary Clinton to participate in ongoing proceedings to ensure that an accurate vote count will be reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recount effort is somewhat unusual in that it comes weeks after Clinton conceded \u2014 and at the urging and with the financial backing of a third-party candidate, Stein, who has no chance of winning, said election law expert Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine. Clinton, too, has virtually no chance of altering the result, given that she would have to reverse not just Wisconsin, but also Michigan and Pennsylvania, to become president, Hasen said.<\/p>\n

Recounts can change outcomes. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) famously defeated Norm Coleman for the seat he now holds after a months-long recount and legal battle, even though Coleman seemed initially to have a lead. But the margins are usually in the hundreds, not thousands, and typically, recounts are initiated by candidates in close races refusing to accept defeat, as is the case in the current North Carolina gubernatorial race between incumbent Pat McCrory (R) and Democrat Roy Cooper<\/a>, Hasen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any realistic chance whatsoever that even if recounts are done in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, that\u2019s going to change the outcome in the states, or in the presidential election generally,\u201d Hasen said.<\/p>\n

The presidential campaign was marked by fears that Russian hacking might affect the outcome, especially after Russian hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee<\/a> and were found to have attempted intrusions on voter registration databases<\/a>. The Washington Post also recently reported, citing researchers who tracked the phenomenon, that Russians created and spread fake news<\/a> about the election with the apparent goal of helping Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

During the campaign, Clinton criticized Trump for refusing to say that he would accept the election results if she won. Asked during an October debate whether he would do so, Trump responded that he would \u201ckeep you in suspense.\u201d Clinton called that answer \u201chorrifying\u201d and said Trump was \u201ctalking down our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump refused to say that he\u2019d respect the results of this election,\u201d her campaign later posted on Twitter. \u201cBy doing that, he\u2019s threatening our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Donald Trump refused to say that he\u2019d respect the results of this election. By doing that, he\u2019s threatening our democracy.<\/p>\n

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 21, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n