Update: Trump Weighs In On Wisconsin Recount

Update: President-elect Donald Trump has weighed in on the Wisconsin recount — and he is not a fan.

Trump went on to tweet a statement attributed to Hillary Clinton during the presidential debates that disavowed a recount, decrying the "time and money" that will be spent on this only to achieve the "same result." Jill Stein also weighed in on Hillary Clinton's campaign, offering words of support for her calls for a recount.

Stein continued, tweeting multiple election reforms that she called on both Clinton and Trump to support for a "fair election," including prohibiting corporations from spending on elections, abolishing the electoral college, and including a "none of the above" option on the ballot for primary and general elections.
Update, November 26, 2016 3:10 p.m. ET: Hillary Clinton's campaign has issued a statement in support of the Wisconsin recount. It details the due diligence in response to outcry from Clinton's supporters following the election results in the three battleground states. "Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not planned to exercise this option ourselves, but now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides," wrote Marc Erik Elias, a lawyer for the Clinton campaign. He goes on to promise that Clinton's campaign will also support recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, should Stein file for them, but it will not take the lead in requesting those recounts.

"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 writes. "But regardless of the potential to change the outcome in any of the states, we feel it is important, on principle, to ensure our campaign is legally represented in any court proceedings and represented on the ground in order to monitor the recount process itself."

Update, November 26, 2016 12:10 p.m. ET: Jill Stein has also filed for a recount in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, getting her request in late on Friday. The dual request, also made by Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente on behalf of the Reform and American Delta Parties, is a first in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Elections Commission announced that there will be a statewide recount of the votes in response to these two petitions, NPR reports. The Stein campaign will pay the fee for the recount, which is expected to begin late in the week, per a statement from Wisconsin Elections Commission Director Mike Haas. By law, the recount is required to be finished by December 13. Stein is still fundraising in order to call for recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan in time for their respective deadlines.

Update, November 25, 2016: Another third-party candidate beat Jill Stein to the punch in Wisconsin. On Friday, November 25, Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente, the Reform Party and American Delta Party candidate, filed a petition to the Wisconsin Election Commission asking for a recount of the election results, citing "evidence of suspicious anomalies and unexpected results in the unaudited computer output" and "known ongoing defects and vulnerability of Wisconsin’s election technology and its management." This article was originally published on November 24, 2016.

Jill Stein has called for a vote recount in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Green Party candidate has also already raised the over $3 million dollars needed to fund the recount, the Guardian reports. In a statement posted on her website, Stein said, "After a divisive and painful presidential race, in which foreign agents hacked into party databases, private email servers, and voter databases in certain states, many Americans are wondering if our election results are reliable. That's why the unexpected results of the election and reported anomalies need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust." Stein's campaign says it is seeking the recount in order to have “protecting our democracy and ensuring that [Americans] an have confidence in reported results.”

Stein's call for a recount comes after reports that a group of activists encouraged Hillary Clinton's campaign to request a recount in the same states, citing voting irregularities. The money Stein has raised so far will fund a recount in one state. The campaign says it will require an additional $6 to $7 million to fund a recount in all three states. Stein's campaign says it will demand recounts in as many of the three states as it can afford. The deadline for a recount request in Wisconsin is Friday, November 24. Pennsylvania's recount request deadline is Monday, November 28. Michigan's is Wednesday, November 30.