GREEN BAY – Aided by more than 120 temporary workers making up to $25 per hour, county clerks across Northeastern Wisconsin on Thursday will begin their recount of ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election.
A judge’s ruling that the work could be done by machine rather than by hand will reduce the time needed for the recount, several clerks said. But the work still could take a week or more, and officials say there’s no way to tell exactly how long it will take to recount thousands of ballots.
“We’re hoping to be done by next Thursday,” said Shawano County Clerk Pam Schmidt.
The money isn’t coming from county coffers. Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Roque De La Fuente this week paid the state almost $3.5 million to cover the estimated cost of recounting nearly 3 million presidential ballots. Officials in the state’s 72 counties would have until the end of the day Dec. 12 to complete the count.
Madison — Green Party candidate Jill Stein paid $3.5 million Tuesday to clear the way for Wisconsin’s presidential vote recount but had a judge reject her lawsuit to require all Wisconsin counties to do the recount by hand.
Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn said the effort to force the hand recount — which was backed by Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign — did not meet the state’s legal standard for prohibiting the use of machines in the recount, saying that the two campaigns did not show a hand recount, though more thorough, was necessary or show there was a clear and convincing evidence of fraud or other problems.
Wisconsin will begin a historic presidential recount next week and the state could risk losing its ability to have its 10 electoral votes counted if it doesn’t meet key deadlines next month.
Hitting a Dec. 13 deadline could be particularly tricky if Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein is able to force the recount to be conducted by hand, Wisconsin’s top election official said.
Stein and independent presidential candidate Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente separately filed recount requests late Friday, the last day they were able to do so. Stein received about 31,000 votes and De La Fuente about 1,500 out of 3 million cast.
One or both of them will have to pay for the recount because they lost by more than 0.25%. The cost could top $1 million.
Stein is also planning to ask for recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania, which have deadlines next week. She has raised $5 million for the recounts in recent days — more than she raised during her campaign leading up to the Nov. 8 election.
Wisconsin’s recount will likely begin late next week, once the state has tallied a cost estimate and received payment from Stein’s campaign, said Michael Haas, administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
First, what a sweet deal for Stein. She helps bleed off votes from the Democrats during the election and now she’s using the Democrats’ hysteria over a rigged election to bilk them out of millions. Well played, Jill… well played.
Second, where was all of this concern over voting machines and vote fraud before the election when the Democrats and the media were sure that Clinton was going to win? I seem to remember them chastising Republicans for having concerns about vote fraud, but now they are behaving like true believers. Situational ethics are pretty forgiving.
Third, I have no doubt that the result will be the same after the recount is done. And while it is a big PITA, at least some election workers will get some nice overtime right before Christmas.
