Wisconsin’s presidential recount is over, done, and the results official. Trump remains the winner, gaining 131 votes over Hillary.
Failed Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein, forked over $3.5 million for a hand recount, claiming she wanted to ensure the integrity of America’s election process. It’s probably just coincidence she chose to test the veracity of our electoral process in the three states Hillary was projected to win, but failed.
In any case, Trump still wins:
In Wisconsin, officials said Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by 22,748 votes out of about 3 million cast — an uptick of 131 over his initial advantage over Clinton.“The biggest reason for these small differences between the unofficial results on Election Night, the counties original canvasses and the recount results is human error,” Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Michael Haas said in a statement. “Some voters do not follow the instructions and mark their ballots correctly for the machines can count them. In the tight deadlines to report the results, election officials make math mistakes, we forget things, we accidentally transpose numbers.”…Stein finished well behind Trump and Clinton. She pushed for recounts over concerns about potential hacking and other irregularities. She presented no evidence to back up her claims.In a statement, Stein applauded the workers and observers who took part in the Wisconsin recount. She also expressed disappointment that not all the counties underwent full hand recounts as she had initially requested.“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. The recount in Wisconsin raised a number of important election integrity issues that bear further assessment and serious action to ensure we have integrity and confidence in our electoral system,” Stein said.
The Wisconsin State Journal explained further:
“Completing this recount was a challenge, but the real winners are the voters,” elections commission chairman Mark Thomsen said in a statement after signing off on the statewide results. “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.”The commission originally advised county clerks to complete their recount process by 8 p.m. Monday so it could certify the results on Tuesday, the last day federal law guarantees a state’s electoral votes will reflect the popular vote when the Electoral College convenes on Dec. 19.On Monday the Board of Canvassers in the final four counties — Dane, Milwaukee, Outagamie and Rock — certified their results. Dane County was the last to complete ballot-counting on Saturday night.
Governor Walker weighed in:
Gov. Scott Walker expressed appreciation for the work done by the state’s 72 county clerks and hundreds of full-time, part-time and temporary employees.”They’ve shown all throughout this process that it was very clear that the vote was legitimate here in the state,” Walker said.
Stein requested recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, but a federal judge stopped the Michigan recount and the would-be Pennsylvania recount never happened, also thanks to a federal judge’s ruling.
That’s an awful lot of money for very little change.
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