Greens file for Wisconsin vote recount, raise funds for Pennsylvania
Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has raised funds to launch a recount in the second of three battleground states won by Donald Trump where she intends to challenge the results.
Stein has raised more than $4.8 million of her $7 million goal, enough to fund a recount in Pennsylvania, her website said on Friday.
Wisconsin's election commission said on Friday it had received petitions for a recount of votes in the presidential election from the Green Party campaign and another candidate and was planning to start the process.
"Now that we have completed funding Wisconsin's recount (where we will file on Friday) and funding Pennsylvania's recount (due Monday), we will focus on raising the needed funds for Michigan's recount (due Wednesday)," Stein's website said.
"These recounts are part of an election integrity movement to attempt to shine a light on just how untrustworthy the US election system is," the website added.
Her campaign has cited unspecified "anomalies" as grounds to mount a challenge in all three Rust Belt states.
The move comes amid stepped-up calls from some of Trump's left-wing opponents to challenge the results of the November 8 election, which followed a bitter campaign that included persistent charges of Russian hacking and plans to commit voter fraud.
"After a divisive and painful presidential race, reported hacks into voter and party databases and individual email accounts are causing many American to wonder if our election results are reliable," Stein said on her website. "These concerns need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust."
Although experts say there is virtually no chance of overturning the result, the demands could reignite debate over the legitimacy of Trump's election, already fueled by Democrat Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote, which now stands at two million.
Clinton lost by a margin of around 27,000 votes in Wisconsin and 60,000 votes in Pennsylvania, while unofficial results released by Michigan's secretary of state's office put Trump ahead by a mere 10,704 votes.
