Green Party’s Jill Stein calls for vote recounts in 3 swing states

Jill Stein, the Green Party's nominee for US president in the 2016 elections, has called on authorities to recount votes in three battleground states, days after her Democratic rival Hillary Clinton was urged by some political activists to contest the election results in several states.

Stein’s campaign announced on Wednesday afternoon that the candidate was seeking an audit and recount of the voting results in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, following hacking allegations.

“Over the last 48-72 hours, reports have come in from experts, cyberexperts, who are reporting to us some very troubling news about the possibility of security breaches in voting results across this country,” Stein’s campaign manager David Cobb said in a message on the candidate’s Facebook page.

Stein told CNN on Tuesday that “these concerns need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified.”

The campaign has launched a fundraiser, asking supporters to come forward and help raise the $2 million needed to fund the recounts by Friday.

Stein’s move came days after a group of academics and election lawyers called on Clinton to challenge the results of the November 8 vote in some counties of the same Rust Belt states.

The group alleged that its analysis of electronic voting machines in the three states brought back possible traces of manipulation or hacking of voting machines in some counties.

According to some reports, Clinton has “underperformed” in areas using electronic ballots compared to areas with paper ballots.

Trump won Wisconsin by a margin of only 22,000 votes, pocketing the state’s crucial 10 electoral votes. In Pennsylvania, Trump won by over 60,000 votes, a surprising victory that brought him 20 more electoral votes.

In Michigan, however, the results have been too close to call and the state’s 16 electoral votes remained unassigned as of Thursday.

Trump defeated Clinton 290-232 in terms of electoral votes, according to unofficial counts. If by any chance Clinton wins the three contested states, she would easily reach the 270-vote threshold needed for victory, while Trump’s votes would drop to 260.

Meanwhile, Clinton’s lead in the popular vote has continued to grow. It was reported on Wednesday that the former secretary of state had won 2 million more votes.

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