Wisconsin to recount presidential election votes

Wisconsin, one of three battleground US states won by President-elect Donald Trump will undergo votes recounting after it received two petitions in this regard from a third-party candidate who alleged that Russian hackers may have infiltrated voting systems.

Votes cast in the state of Wisconsin, having 10 presidential Electoral College votes, will be recounted.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein filed the request for recounting of votes before the deadline on Friday and said it has raised more than $5.2 million (Rs 35 crore) for recounting of votes.

In a statement, Stein said the reliability of voting machines needs to be ‘investigated’ after suspicions about Russian hackers seeking to infiltrate voting systems.

‘Election integrity experts have independently identified Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as states where ‘statistical anomalies’ raised concerns,’ she said.

Stein said she also plans to challenge the presidential election results in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where Trump won.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Michael Haas said they are preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by candidate.

“We have assembled an internal team to direct the recount, we have been in close consultation with our county clerk partners, and have arranged for legal representation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice,” Haas said.

‘The State Election Commission plans to hold a teleconference meeting for county clerks next week and anticipate the recount will begin late in the week after the Stein campaign has paid the recount fee. The State is still calculating the recount fee. Our effort to recount votes in those states is not intended to help Hillary Clinton,’ according to her fundraising page.

‘These recounts are part of an election integrity movement to attempt to shine a light on just how untrustworthy the US election system is,’ it said.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission said it plans to complete the recount of votes by December 10.

The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly won the Wisconsin by a narrow margin of 22,000 votes.

President-elect got 1,404,000 votes against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's 1,381,823.

Stein received 31,006 votes.

In addition to Stein, Roque ‘Rocky’ De La Fuente, the Reform Party nominee who got 1,514 Wisconsin votes, also filed a recount petition, the Wisconsin Election Commission said.

Photograph: Reuters