Cortney wrote how Green Party candidate Jill Stein has filed a recount challenged in Pennsylvania, but it’s a petition riddled with legal hurdles, some of which may be too high for this clown show to overcome. First, a statewide recount is out of the question, as some counties’ recount deadlines have passed. Stein will have to challenge the official results in court, providing evidence that there was indeed outside influences meddling with the election process. The problem: no evidence exists (via PhillyMag):
Stein can’t file for a recount for herself; instead, three voters from each voting district must request one. Per Billy Penn, Stein would need about 30,000 volunteers for this effort — and in some counties, the recount filing deadline has passed already. Stein could also file a lawsuit, but would need evidence that election fraud was “probable.” A lawsuit, then, seems like the likeliest avenue to force an audit of election results. But it seems unlikely to succeed barring evidence of fraud emerging.And unfortunately for those who support Stein’s efforts, almost 80 percent of Pennsylvania’s counties use voting machines that do not leave a paper audit trail. Marian Schneider, Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary for elections and administration, told NBC in October that there’s little chance of hacking the vote totals, because the computers used to program voting machines are not connected to the Internet.
But can these voting machines be tampered with? Yeah, but that would be an arduous process in which someone would have to enter the warehouse that’s under 24-hour surveillance, where all 4,500 machines are stored—and the tamper with all the machines over a period of four months. In other words, there’s really nothing to these accusations of fraud (via CBS Pittsburgh):
“We have not seen any evidence that anything has been compromised since we had the machines,” Allegheny County Director of Elections Mark Wolosik said.There are a lot of reasons for that. Let’s say you could break into the machines and reprogram them to favor a candidate.
The first issue,” Wolosik says is, “They are an island unto themselves. They are not connected to any other machine.”
So any manipulations would have to be one machine at a time, which Dr. Shamos estimates would take 15 minutes per machine, with 4,500 machines.
“To do it for all the machines in the county would take four months,” said Dr. Shamos.
It would also have to be done undetected in a warehouse that is under surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Oh, and after the election is over, the machines are kept in the warehouse with their programming untouched over the next 20 days just in case there is an issue. Also, CBS added that an independent agency randomly tests voting machines to see if any tampering has occurred. Also, the paper result with the chip from the machine is collected to conduct the official count.
Dear Greens, liberals, progressives, and any other Clinton supporter. Clinton lost the election. There was no tampering, the Obama administration has even confirmed that much, and it’s time to make way for President Donald J. Trump. This is just becoming an exercise in cruelty, where the Left is keeping some hope alive when in reality—all is lost. Old, sick Hillary is now becoming sore loser Hillary—and losing with grace has gone right out the window.
UPDATE: Yeah, the lawsuit is Stein's only option--and it's not a good one. The recount deadline has passed. Let it go, lady (via Philadelphia Inquirer):
According to the Department of State, there were 9,163 voting precincts in Pennsylvania during the 2016 election. So Stein would need over 27,000 voters to file notarized affidavits, but it's unclear if that avenue is even still available.
According to Wanda Murren, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, the deadline for a voter-initiated recount was Monday, Nov. 21. That would make a lawsuit the only remaining option for initiating a statewide recount.
Complicating any recount effort is the fact that Pennsylvania is one of 15 states that use electronic voting machines that don't have a paper-backed audit.
“The nightmare scenario would be if Pennsylvania decides the election and it is very close," Lawrence Norden, an expert on voting machines, told the Los Angeles Times prior to the election. "You would have no paper records to do a recount.”
Even if Stein were able to overcome the odds and initiate a statewide recount, it’s doubtful Clinton would be able to overcome Trump’s 70,638 lead in Pennsylvania.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member