Oops! Jill Stein Cannot File Direct Request for Recount in Pennsylvania, Must Take It to Court

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I agree, that is not way or shape that votes can be found to favor Hillary in the states in question enough for her to get the elections, that is a wishful thinking from the part of those that can not accept her defeat.

But I see the effort to keep the public fighting, protesting and complaining, violence is also encourage, this will put Trump presidential inauguration into the spot light and will make it a circus rather than the smooth transition of power that our country has always been very proud of it.

Is despicable.

a reply to: BlueAjah

Well at this point, given everything that has happened, and things are moving quickly, my focus is shifting to the electoral college votes. Michigan certified their vote, PA isn't looking good, and the possibility that an overturn could come from recounts, at all, is virtually 0. So that hurdle is passed in my opinion. The real fat lady that has to sing is the votes from the electoral college. The Dems know this, and the nationwide death threats against the electors are testament to this. They were on that angle early, but have invoked law enforcement with that one, as death threats cross the line, and are subject to jail time.

One last crossed fingers folks. We just have to hurry up and wait.

originally posted by: marg6043
But I see the effort to keep the public fighting, protesting and complaining, violence is also encourage
...

That I can agree with, but this type of tact always blows up in your face.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

It does and no usually in a good way, freedom of speech is not the same as anarchy.

And we can not forget that is more despicable forces also lurking in the background of any conflict waiting to strike amid the chaos.

billypenn.com...

This is a good overview of the status of the PA recount effort so far.

The Class action has been submitted, but not yet decided.

Regarding the effort to get voters in each district to file affidavits:

The Pennsylvania Department of State doesn’t have a final statewide count yet, but Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt said by the end of the day Monday, 74 petitions had been filed in Philadelphia. That means the city would recount 74 of the 1,686 voting divisions in the city, or about 4.3 percent.
...
The Department of State is aware of petitions for a recount were filed in Berks, Bucks, Centre, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, but isn’t aware of how many were filed in each county.

As mentioned above, just because there were petitions does not mean that the entire county would be recounted. Only the voting jurisdictions that had more than 3 affidavits.

These are the current full counts of the counties listed above, as of 11/29/16:

Berks

CLINTON, HILLARY 42.73% Votes: 75,169
TRUMP, DONALD J 52.91% Votes: 93,094


Bucks

CLINTON, HILLARY 48.52% Votes: 167,060
TRUMP, DONALD J 47.74% Votes: 164,361


Centre

CLINTON, HILLARY 48.71% Votes: 37,088
TRUMP, DONALD J 46.32% Votes: 35,274

Montgomery

CLINTON, HILLARY 58.87% Votes: 247,724
TRUMP, DONALD J 37.47% Votes: 157,655

Philadelphia

CLINTON, HILLARY 82.41% Votes: 563,275
TRUMP, DONALD J 15.49% Votes: 105,876

If they are going to recount, I think that Philadelphia and Montgomery are good places to start!
IF there was fraud, I would believe it would happen in Philadelphia. This would probably not have been Trump though.
The downside - it might trigger a full recount.
The upside - it would show fraud from Clinton's side.

Clinton won 4 of the 5 counties on the list so far. This makes sense, because those areas probably had a larger pool of Clinton supporters willing to file. But that means they would be counting areas where Clinton did well, especially Philadelphia.
I wonder how Clinton feels about that?

originally posted by: Tarzan the apeman.
a reply to: Indigo5

In the link I provided none of Wisconsins machines are connected to the internet. Most of them are optical.

Correct...Paper ballot, plus Optical Scanning Voting Machine to tabulate results.
Those machines are initialized before the election day via a thumb drive or memory card. Those memory cards are loaded with the programming via a PC which receives the instructions/code via the internet. The voting machine manufacturer sends out those updates.

I am saying the above in the context of YES it is possible to hack a voting machine...now more than ever...AND I still think it is highly unlikely.

See here: LINK

It doesn’t matter whether the voting machines are connected to the Internet. Shortly before each election, poll workers copy the ballot design from a regular desktop computer in a government office, and use removable media (like the memory card from a digital camera) to load the ballot onto each machine. That initial computer is almost certainly not well secured, and if an attacker infects it, vote-stealing malware can hitch a ride to every voting machine in the area.

From a Professor of CS who has actually hacked a voting machine in less than 7 minutes!

How to Hack an Election in 7 Minutes

With Russia already meddling in 2016, a ragtag group of obsessive tech experts is warning that stealing the ultimate prize—victory on Nov. 8—would be child’s play.


When Princeton professor Andrew Appel decided to hack into a voting machine, he didn’t try to mimic the Russian attackers who hacked into the Democratic National Committee's database last month. He didn’t write malicious code, or linger near a polling place where the machines can go unguarded for days.

Instead, he bought one online.

With a few cursory clicks of a mouse, Appel parted with $82 and became the owner of an ungainly metallic giant called the Sequoia AVC Advantage, one of the oldest and vulnerable, electronic voting machines in the United States (among other places it’s deployed in Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania).

LINK

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe

originally posted by: Indigo5

originally posted by: jellyrev
a reply to: Indigo5

This is actually what the right wing has been shouting about for a decade...strange to see them shouting about how voting machines are impenetrable now.

They don't claim that. They claim there is a chance that ballots were not in secure locations, who's watching over ballots when the election has been conceded?
Watching the vote tally is not a big deal. Without verifying who's ballot was who's, ballot stuffing becomes the issue.

They validate each ballot comparing the signature, name and address to the voter rolls during a recount and all ballots are kept secure until final declaration in Dec.

And, isn't that what MI just finished doing?
Recounting and validating???

Nope..What gives you that idea?

Michigan delayed their final count as long as they could in anticipation of a recount. They didn't want the expense of counting twice.

Honestly...What made you think that they validated ballots and compared signatures and names to the voter rolls?

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I agree, that is not way or shape that votes can be found to favor Hillary in the states in question enough for her to get the elections, that is a wishful thinking from the part of those that can not accept her defeat.

Hillary is over politically.

This is about the integrity of elections....and honestly whatever the outcome of forensic examination or recount, everyone should be glad it is being done.

IF...on the outside chance tampering is discovered, THEN it is still up to the electoral college..And the make up of the electoral college is such that if they were forced to discount Trump as a candidate for some unforeseen reason, they would elect Pence. If it is demonstrated that the machines were rigged in WI...that frees the electoral college to be "faithless" electors..but again, that doesn't favor Hillary.

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I know, right!

And I highly doubt WI and PA got the extra bucks.....saw a headline that WI could cost $3.5 million...WTF!

You might save your outrage for when you know the facts?

WI

If Monday's cost estimate is high, Stein and De La Fuente will get a refund, but if the costs come in above expectations they will have to pay more.

www.usatoday.com...

a reply to: Indigo5

Maybe in WI....not what I heard about Michigan.
The MSM news report said the taxpayers must pick up the difference......I sure hope they get an accurate bill assessment before they go forward....if they need to go froward.


ETA
And, to add injury to financial insult....if the electoral votes do NOT count in those three states....haven't you just disenfranchised millions of voters who acted in good faith on Election Day???
Take away those Electoral votes....and citizens votes do not count!
I'd be pretty darn unhappy...

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Indigo is wrong. they run test votes to ensure no funny business is going on with the calibration o f those optical scanners,and they have to match the paper ballots.

Jill Stein’s Pennsylvania recount lawsuit gets a hearing

A new order from the Commonwealth in a lawsuit funded by Stein this afternoon set that Dec. 5 hearing and a deadline of noon Friday for Pennsylvania’s electors to respond to the suit. The electors are the people who comprise the state’s delegation to the electoral college, and will officially select the next president on Dec. 19. A conclusive decision on the suit must be reached by Dec. 13, according to the order.

a reply to: BlueAjah

It can tell for sure that they state will not recount, so this nothing but standard procedures.

EU politicians and "intellectuals" are pushing for vote recount in the US, as they are still hoping for Trump's overthrow/assassination and replacement with Clinton. Slavoj Zizek is one of the main suspects of ideological/mystical/confusional manipulative info spreading related to the US elections and to Trump.

Lehigh County recount turns up few discrepancies

A recount of votes in six Lehigh County election districts turned up few discrepancies Wednesday, shifting the outcome by three votes for Hillary Clinton and one for U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey.

A group of about a dozen observers — lawyers from New York and Philadelphia and neighbors from Lower Macungie — mobilized by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's campaign, crowded into the board of elections office in the basement of the Lehigh County administration building Wednesday morning to observe.

They followed along, checking off voting machine serial numbers and vote totals as Chief Clerk Tim Benyo and an assistant shuffled polling place records, pored over printouts that resembled cash register receipts and downloaded voting machine memory cards for a second time.

In the end, the numbers matched those reported on election night more or less exactly, Benyo said. They uncovered three absentee ballots and a military ballot that were uncounted the first time around, he said. Democrat Clinton and Republican Toomey gained as a result.

ETA: To put this in perspective, there were 160,998 voters in Lehigh County, PA

Judge blocks precinct recounts in Montgomery County

NORRISTOWN — A Montgomery County judge is rejecting Green Party-backed requests for recounts of presidential election results in about 78 precincts.

Judge Bernard Moore gave no immediate reason for the rejection Wednesday. Lawyers for the Republican Party and the county argued against the requests during a hearing.

Berks activists want a recount of presidential election

Organizers of the recount effort said they collected challenges from about a dozen precincts, including some where they did not reach the three-petition minimum to prompt a recount.

But they said their bid was complicated when county elections officials would not accept the petitions and told them instead to file court challenges with the prothonotary's office. They said they were told at the prothonotary's office that they would need to pay a fee of nearly $200 for each filing.
...
He said the answer came in a Monday afternoon email state elections commissioner Jonathan M. Marks sent to county election officials across the state.

Marks wrote that counties still tallying election results must accept the petitions. But he wrote that in counties that have completed the tallies and opened five-day challenge periods, the petitions must be filed with the court.

Berks fell into the latter category. The county's election tally was completed last week and the challenge window closed at the end of Monday. The election board is scheduled to certify the results Thursday.

Centre County votes to approve Nov. 8 election results

BELLEFONTE The Centre County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to approve the Nov. 8 election results despite recount affidavits filed by voters.
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Any group or person asking for a recount must file an affidavit within a five-day time period following the Centre County board of elections’ pre-approval of the certificate of computation. The certificate was approved Nov.17 by Joyce McKinley, Centre County director of elections.
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“In concert with the department of state and our local attorney the directive we’ve received is we’ve waited the five days and the period expired on Nov. 22,” McKinley said.

The voters can file the affidavits with the Court of Common Pleas if they wish to have the matter heard by a judge, but Commissioner Steven Dershem said the county followed the law and officiated the election properly.

Broad voter recount in PA not expected, Allegheny County plans recanvass of certain voting machines

Allegheny County plans to recanvass electronic voting machines used in 52 of its 1,322 precincts in response to requests filed Monday for a recount of the results in the presidential and U.S. Senate races.

The process, which will start at 10 a.m. Monday, will compare election-night result tapes against totals on the voting machines' memory cards.
...
A spokesman for Stein said Tuesday that 780 voters requested recounts in 260 precincts across Pennsylvania. The state has 9,163 precincts.
...
Stein and her supporters launched an aggressive online campaign over the weekend to encourage Pennsylvania voters to request recounts, but the effort got off the ground too late in many counties. The Pennsylvania Department of State had determined as of Monday afternoon that at least 40 counties already had certified their results, dashing recount hopes.

In addition to Allegheny County, recounts will occur in precincts in Berks, Bucks, Centre, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, Scarrow said.

In Allegheny County, Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Republican Donald Trump in all of the precincts included in the recanvassing. They included 33 precincts in Pittsburgh, seven in Mt. Lebanon, two in Edgewood and one each in Aspinwall, Bellevue, Ben Avon, Bethel Park, Castle Shannon, Dormont, Ohio Township, Pine, Swissvale and Whitehall.

Clinton's margin of victory was fewer than 100 votes in only two precincts — Pittsburgh Ward 14 District 17 (85 votes) and Mt. Lebanon Ward 5 District 6 (87 votes). In each case, however, the gap between Clinton and Trump was at least 10 percentage points.

Bucks County court to review election recount petitions

Freeman's petition is one of 27 filed with the county Monday, the deadline for challenges to Bucks' certified results. Board of Elections executive director Deena Dean said the county votes were certified Nov. 23, and state law grants five business days for challenges post-certification.
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Bucks County Court administrator Stephen Heckman said that 24 have been accepted, while the others where either duplicates or did not have the required three signatures from the voting precinct.
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A judge will be assigned to review the filings and determine whether or not a hearing is warranted. Heckman expects an announcement by Thursday morning.