Pennsylvania recount dropped
Green Party ends court case
Harrisburg, Pa. — Green Party-backed voters dropped a court case Saturday night that had sought to force a statewide recount of Pennsylvania’s Nov. 8 presidential election, won by Republican Donald Trump, in what Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein had framed as an effort to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated.
The decision came two days before a court hearing was scheduled in the case. Saturday’s court filing to withdraw the case said the Green Partybacked voters who filed the case “are regular citizens of ordinary means” and cannot afford the $1 million bond ordered by the court by 5 p.m. Monday. However, Green Party-backed efforts to force recounts and analyze election software in scattered precincts were continuing.
It was not clear what Stein’s move in Pennsylvania might mean for the ongoing recount in Wisconsin she and her supporters have paid for.
On Friday, a federal judge in Madison denied an emergency halt to the Wisconsin recount, allowing the process to continue until a Dec. 9 court hearing at least.
Stein is also seeking a recount in Michigan. All three states would have to swing from Presidentelect Donald Trump to Democrat Hillary Clinton for the outcome of the race to change — some experts say that is extremely unlikely.
Stein plans to make an announcement about the Pennsylvania recount Monday outside the Trump Tower in New York, aides said.
A recount began Thursday in Wisconsin, while a recount could begin next week in Michigan. Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania was particularly stunning: the state’s fifth-most electoral votes are a key stepping stone to the White House, and no Republican presidential candidate had captured the state since 1988.
Stein had said the purpose of Pennsylvania’s recount was to ensure “our votes are safe and secure,” considering hackers’ probing of election targets in other states and hackers’ accessing of the emails of the Democratic National Committee and several Clinton staffers. U.S. security officials have said they believe Russian hackers orchestrated the email hacks, something Russia has denied.
Stein’s lawyers had offered no evidence of hacking in Pennsylvania’s election.
Lawyers for Trump and the state Republican Party argued there was no evidence, or even an allegation, that tampering with Pennsylvania’s voting systems had occurred. Further, Pennsylvania law does not allow a court-ordered recount, they argued, and a lawyer for the Green Party had acknowledged that the effort was without precedent in Pennsylvania.
The case also had threatened Pennsylvania’s ability to certify its presidential electors by the Dec. 13 federal deadline.
On Saturday, a GOP lawyer, Lawrence Tabas, said the case had been meant “solely for purposes to delay the Electoral College vote in Pennsylvania for President-elect Trump.”
The state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Pedro Cortes, a Democrat, has said there was no evidence of any sort of cyberattacks or irregularities in the election.
Pennsylvania’s automatic statewide recount trigger is 0.5%. Stein drew less than 1% of the votes cast.