Wis. Elections Commission Says No to Hand Recount

Green Party candidate Jill Stein wanted a hand recount of the votes for president in Wisconsin, and in a unanimous vote, the state's Elections Commission said no.
  
The commission determined Monday that local election clerks can decide how they want to recount the votes.
  
Wisconsin's recount is scheduled to begin on Thursday if Stein pays the state on Tuesday. Independent candidate Rocky De La Fuente also requested a recount.
  
Stein still has the option of asking a judge to order a hand recount, which could delay the outcome significantly, according to The Associated Press. Under federal law, the recount must be finished by Dec. 13.

Wisconsin officials say it will be difficult to wrap up the recount by the federal deadline, according to ABC News. 

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the Green Party says it will request that a court require a recount there. However, it's not clear if the courts have the power to do that.

President-elect Donald Trump said it's "sad" Hillary Clinton is joining the effort to force recounts of votes in three battleground states, Michigan being the third.

"So much time and money will be spent - same result! Sad," Trump tweeted.

Trump won Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and as of Wednesday, held a lead of almost 11,000 votes in Michigan.

Clinton's campaign attorney, Marc Elias, said the campaign received hundreds of messages urging them to investigate claims that the election results were hacked.

"We intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides," he said.

In a post on Medium, Elias said Clinton's campaign would take part but with little hope the results would be overturned, and partially because they feel they owe it to the millions who voted for Mrs. Clinton, according to The New York Times.

"We do so fully aware that the number of votes separating Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the closest of these states - Michigan - well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a recount," Elias said.

He also stated that Clinton campaign leaders had not discovered any "actionable evidence" of vote tampering attempts or hacking, The New York Times reported.

On Twitter, Trump alleged election fraud.

"I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," he tweeted Sunday. He also claimed "serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California."

Wisconsin officials announced Friday they were moving forward with the first presidential recount in state history.

Clinton led the national popular vote by almost 2 million, but Trump won 290 electoral votes. It takes 270 to win the presidency. Clinton only had 232.

If the Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan recounts are found to be for Clinton it could tip the electoral balance in her favor.

However, a recount effort would be considered highly unusual as Clinton has already conceded and Stein has little chance of winning.

"I don't think there's any realistic chance whatsoever that even if recounts are done in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, that's going to change the outcome in the states, or in the presidential election generally," election law expert Richard L. Hasen told The Washington Post.

"The people have spoken and the election is over," Trump said in a statement, "and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, 'We must accept this result and then look to the future.'"