At a press conference on Monday morning, with Trump Tower looming large in the background, Dr. Jill Stein, former Green Party presidential candidate, once again stressed the importance of a recount in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. “We are here today for a vote that is accurate, secure and fair and just, in which every vote counts and every vote is counted. This, in fact, is what makes America great, the promise of democracy and the promise of justice for all,” Dr. Stein said outside Trump Tower.
The press conference took place amidst news that late Sunday night, Michigan federal judge, U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, an Obama appointee, had granted the campaign’s emergency request to start the statewide recount in Michigan immediately. The decision came after Trump lawyers and Michigan’s Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette, had tried to halt the recount initiative in that state. Trump won the State of Michigan by a small margin of 10,704 votes. “We’re celebrating today a judicial decision last night in Michigan by Judge Mark Goldsmith, who affirmed in his decision that this recount advances our fundamental right to vote and election fairness and accuracy and that these things are the bedrock of our democracy,” Dr. Stein said. At the center of the recount in Michigan is the question of 75,000 so-called undervotes or incomplete ballots. While this is not an unusual occurrence, in this election the number of undervotes were 70% greater compared to previous elections, particularly in communities of color. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has established that the odds of votes being miscounted or discounted, either through human or machine error, are 900% greater in communities of color. “This is not simply an abstract concern; this is a very real concern that these votes once again are being tossed in the dust bin here, and disrespected,” Dr. Stein said.
While recounts are well under way in Wisconsin and now Michigan, the Stein campaign experienced a setback in the Pennsylvania recount effort on Friday. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ordered the Stein campaign to post a $1,000,000 bond to proceed with a state-wide recount. In a statement, Dr. Stein said, “The judge’s outrageous demand that voters pay such an exorbitant figure is a shameful, unacceptable barrier to democratic participation. No voter in America should be forced to pay thousands of dollars to know if her or his vote was counted.” On Monday, the Green Party went to federal court trying to force a recount based on constitutional grounds.
“It’s clear that the fix was in against a verified vote in the state of Pennsylvania,” Stein said, “so we are now moving to federal court to ask the court to please stand up for our constitutional right to vote.” Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that relies on DRE machines with no paper ballot or receipt, making a close vote total in the state a “nightmare scenario,” according to voting machine expert Lawrence Norden.
