Quick recount halt denied

Judge orders process to continue until hearing

Madison — A federal judge Friday denied an emergency halt to the recount of the presidential vote in Wisconsin, allowing the process to continue until a Dec. 9 court hearing at least.

There is no need to halt the recount just yet because it will not do any immediate harm to Republican President-elect Donald Trump or his supporters, U.S. District Judge James Peterson wrote in a three-page order that called for both sides in the case to lay out written arguments before he takes any action.

Citing the case that cleared George W. Bush’s path to the presidency, Trump supporters had filed a lawsuit early Friday to stop Wisconsin’s recount and safeguard the president elect’s Nov. 8 victory here.

The lawsuit contends, in part, that the state’s recount process is unconstitutional because ballots aren’t treated equally in all cases — a standard used in the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that halted a recount in Florida and left Bush as the winner of that year’s presidential race with Democrat Al Gore. Trump and supporters also filed actions Friday seeking to head off separate re-

counts in Michigan and Pennsylvania before those efforts could get started.

In Wisconsin, some counties are recounting ballots by hand and some by machine. The same was true during the initial count the night of and days after the election.

The challenge was brought in federal court in Madison Friday by the Great America PAC, Stop Hillary PAC and a Wisconsin voter. It is being heard by Peterson, who was appointed to the bench in 2014 by President Barack Obama.

The plaintiffs also argue that the recount runs the risk of preventing Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes from being counted. State elections officials have said they’re committed to finishing the recount by a federal Dec. 13 deadline to ensure that doesn’t happen.

The recount began Thursday after Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein — who received 1% of Wisconsin’s vote — paid $3.5 million to force the state to recount nearly 3 million presidential votes across Wisconsin. It’s considered highly unlikely that the recount would affect Trump’s 22,000-vote win over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state.

“Jill Stein is clearly not entitled under statute to a recount and for the state board to allow it would be a massive waste of taxpayer resources in violation of the plain reading of the statute,” Eric Beach, co-chairman of Great America PAC, said in a statement.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission said Friday that local clerks and canvassing boards should keep up their race

to finish the recount.

Matthew Brincker- hoff, the lead attorney for Stein’s recount effort, said the campaign would seek to intervene in the case to help defend the recount.

“Citizens in Wisconsin and across the country have made it clear that they want a recount and deserve to see this process through to ensure integrity in the vote,” he said in a statement.

Numbers released by the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Friday showed little change to the vote totals here so far.

That’s true in the state’s largest city, said Neil Albrecht, the head of the Milwaukee Election Commission. He estimated that one-quarter of the city’s ballots have already been processed.

The city is using machines to scan and count its paper ballots, but it’s not all the same machines used on Nov. 8, he said. This time the city is using only its high-volume central office machines and is supplementing those machines with several rented ones, he said.

The Stein campaign has objected to machine counts based on the presumption that if machines were hacked or defective and are used to count the same ballots twice, they might repeat any errors made in the first count.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Friday he would consider limiting the ability of candidates to ask for recounts in Wisconsin.

“I think a lot of people no matter where they sit on the political spectrum kind of scratch their head on why someone would ask for a recount when they came in fourth,” Walker said of Stein, who finished behind Trump, Clinton and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

“I think we should call

it for what it is and really it’s just a fundraising scheme for the Green Party,” Walker told reporters. “It’s perfectly legal. It’s their right to do that. They’re paying for it. The taxpayer’s not paying for it. The only real concern I have is that for a lot of these clerks, local clerks, they’re already busy.”

State law allows candidates to request recounts, but they must pay for them for losses of more than 0.25% of the vote. Walker did not provide specifics on what kind of changes to the law he would consider.

State Sen. Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said Friday he would introduce recount legislation that would likely require a candidate to be within a certain threshold of the winning candidate to be able to ask for a recount, even if the petitioner is willing to pay for it. Other Republican lawmakers like the idea of preventing a distant finisher like Stein from filing a recount request in the future, he said.

“We’re all hearing from constituents that this is complete nonsense and why can a candidate who received 1% of the vote hold up our electoral process?” LeMahieu said.

Both Walker and LeMahieu noted clerks must deal with the recount at a time when they are doing other work, such as preparing property tax bills.

Republicans seek recounts, as well. For instance, Dan Kapanke, a former GOP senator, is currently using the recount process to confirm whether he really lost his rematch race with Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse). That race is much tighter than the presidential race, however.