green party presidential candidate jill stein formally requested a vote recount in wisconsin on friday and is preparing challenges in pennsylvania and michigan, after a prominent computer scientist called for an examination of paper ballots and electronic voting machines in order to conclusively prove that hackers hadn<u+2019>t manipulated the results. the wisconsin elections commission received the campaign<u+2019>s petition on friday afternoon and said it was prepared to move forward with a statewide recount, paid for by money raised by ms. stein, beginning late next week. the recount must be completed by dec. 13 to comply with certain federal deadlines regarding the selection of electors. ms. stein<u+2019>s request for a recount is far from guaranteed in the two other states. in michigan, the winning candidate can object to any recount request, and the issue would be settled by the board of elections. in pennsylvania, such an effort would likely need to go before a judge. the three states voted for republican donald trump over democrat hillary clinton by narrow margins in the presidential race, and should a recount overturn the initial results, mrs. clinton would be awarded the white house. but it is extremely unlikely that three separate state recounts would reverse the preliminary results. neither mrs. clinton nor her campaign has made any statement about the stein campaign effort to recount ballots in the three decisive states. a spokesman for mrs. clinton declined to comment. the long-shot recount effort has been powered by a surge in online fundraising over the thanksgiving holiday, with ms. stein<u+2019>s campaign bringing in more than $5 million for recount work as of friday afternoon, according to a fundraising website set up by the campaign. the recount effort raised more than ms. stein brought in during her entire presidential campaign, which saw her receive roughly 1% of the national popular vote. the stein campaign estimates it needs about $7 million for recount challenges across all three states, which includes filing fees, attorneys costs and logistical expenses. absent evidence of widespread and systemic irregularities, tampering or outright fraud, there is only the slimmest of chances that mrs. clinton could make up the more than 100,000 votes that separate her from mr. trump across all three states. a democratic election attorney unaffiliated with the clinton campaign said recounts usually yield swings of a few hundred votes at most. in the wisconsin recount, all ballots will be examined to determine voter intent before being retabulated by county election boards, the elections commission said in a statement. each of the state<u+2019>s 72 county governments has primary authority in the recount process, which is open to the public to observe. independent presidential candidate rocky de la fuente joined ms. stein in requesting the recount in wisconsin. ms. stein, a harvard-educated physician and massachusetts-based political activist, said that her intention in requesting a recount was to ensure that americans had faith in the electoral process<u+2014>not an attempt to swing the result from mr. trump to mrs. clinton. the green party has long had an antagonistic relationship with mainstream democrats. <u+201c>essentially what we<u+2019>re doing here is standing up for an election system that we can trust. we deserve to have votes that we can believe in,<u+201d> ms. stein said in an online video. <u+201c>we are not attempting to overthrow donald trump, and i don<u+2019>t expect that that will be the outcome.<u+201d> the green party platform has long called for changes to the way that americans cast ballots. the party was also involved in recount efforts in ohio in 2004, after the state narrowly voted to re-elect republican president george w. bush over democrat john kerry. mr. trump routinely warned his supporters before election day that the outcome may not be on the up-and-up, and mrs. clinton<u+2019>s supporters pointed to efforts linked to russia to hack and release embarrassing information about her campaign as a sign the american system was being undermined. election officials and cybersecurity experts worried about the safety and security of voting infrastructure. the movement for a recount has been driven in part by j. alex halderman, a prominent computer scientist and expert in election security and one of a group of computer scientists and election-law experts who urged clinton campaign officials last week to press for a recount of ballots in those three states. in a blog post, mr. halderman outlined a theoretical way that electronic voting systems, even if they are not connected to the internet, could have been hacked. he acknowledged that there is no evidence that such a hack occurred. <u+201c>the only way to know whether a cyberattack changed the result is to closely examine the available physical evidence<u+2014>paper ballots and voting equipment in critical states like wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. unfortunately, nobody is ever going to examine that evidence unless candidates in those states act now, in the next several days, to petition for recounts,<u+201d> mr. halderman wrote wednesday. though mr. trump won a clear victory in the preliminary results in all three states, ms. stein<u+2019>s recount effort could nevertheless cast more doubt on the system<u+2019>s legitimacy. <u+201c>this just feeds into the idea that the election is rigged, only now we<u+2019>re hearing this coming from the left rather than the right,<u+201d> said rick hasen, an election law expert at the university of california, irvine. write to byron tau at byron.tau@wsj.com
jill stein campaign requests a vote recount in wisconsin  - wsj
byron tau