Early Decisions May Make Wisconsin Recount A Sham Print
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Written by GBP Staff   
Monday, 28 November 2016 16:57

donald-trumpNewly formed State Elections Commission decides to place speed over accuracy to complete recount before the holidays. The campaigns of Stein, de la Fuente or a combination of both have pledged to pay the full cost.


MADISON - Wisconsin election officials raced Monday to prepare to recount the state's presidential election results, while expressing confidence the recount will uphold Republican Donald J. Trump's surprise win in Wisconsin, which helped him become president-elect.

jill-steinThe recount was requested by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who cited unspecified "evidence of voting irregularities," and American Delta Party candidate Roque de la Fuente.

In deliberations Monday, Wisconsin's new partisan run Elections Commission estimated the recount would cost $3.5 million, far more than any previous estimate. The campaigns of Stein, de la Fuente or a combination of both have pledged to pay the full amount. They also set an unusually speedy timeline for the recount so the Electoral College can meet before the holidays to formally elect the next president.

More importantly, the commission Monday said officials in each of the state's 72 counties will decide whether to conduct the recount in their county by hand or by machine. The commission's director, Michael Haas, said that comports with state law.

While a simple rescanning of forms may be faster and less expensive, if one reason for the undercount was systematic scanning errors, then this decision alone might make the recount a waste of time. One expert experienced in optical scanning technology estimates a 5% to 35% undercount could occur based upon the design of the forms and the programming of the scanners to detect completion errors by voters. Completion errors on similar state forms have traditionally been higher in democratic voting areas like Milwaukee.

The Stein's campaign had asked that the recount of all ballots tallied by optical scan machines be conducted by hand in order to accurately identify these types of errors at the source. They asked a Dane County judge to order a hand recount after the commission rebuffed that request.

The recount is set to begin Thursday and end by 8 p.m. Dec. 12, under a plan approved by the commission Monday.