County officials across Wisconsin were re-tallying votes yesterday as the Midwestern state began a presidential recount.
The effort followed a payment this week of $3.5mn in recount costs by the presidential campaign of Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
The left-wing candidate, who won about 1% of the vote in Wisconsin and nationally, petitioned last week for the recount as part of an effort to change the outcome of the November 8 elections, in which Donald Trump scored a surprise victory.
In Wisconsin, Trump beat Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton by more than 22,000 votes.
Stein claims that voting machines used in some parts of Wisconsin and other states are vulnerable to hacking and could have been manipulated.
Stein’s campaign website listed more than $6.7mn in donations yesterday towards a goal of $9mn, for a drive that she says is seeking to overturn the results in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
They are all industrial heartland states where Clinton had been expected to win but lost to Trump, who was the nominee of the conservative Republican Party.
Flipping the three battleground states from Trump to Clinton would swing enough electoral votes to change the outcome of the November 8 elections.
Clinton led the national popular vote by more than 2.5mn votes but lost in the decisive electoral vote, in which states are weighted by population.
The Green Party nominee has sought a recount in Michigan and filed a lawsuit to force a recount in Pennsylvania.
Trump has denounced Stein’s effort as a fundraising “scam” for the Green Party.

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