News / Politics

Judge rejects bid to halt vote recount in Wisconsin

Saturday, 03 December 2016 2:44 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 03 December 2016 5:27 PM ]

Tabulators look over a ballot during a statewide presidential election recount Thursday, December 1, 2016, in West Bend, Wisconsin. (Photo by AP)

A federal court in the US state of Wisconsin has denied an emergency halt to the recount of the presidential vote.

Two political action committees -- the Great America PAC and Stop Hillary PAC -- filed a lawsuit and a request in federal court in Madison, the state capital, on Friday for a temporary restraining order seeking to stop the voter recount.

They argued that it is an unconstitutional violation of the rights of people, who had voted for President-elect Donald Trump, and that the recount runs the risk of preventing Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes from being counted.

Wisconsin elections officials have said they are determined to finishing the recount by December 13.

US District Judge James Peterson on Friday afternoon denied the motion to halt the recount, saying there would be no harm in the process to continue until a December 9 court hearing at least.

On Friday, Trump's supporters also moved to halt election recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton narrowly lost these three states to Trump. If Clinton had won all of these states’ 46 Electoral College votes, it would have been enough for her to win the White House.

Recounting of Wisconsin’s about 3 million votes for president began on Thursday.

But Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes are not going to change the outcome of the election since Trump won 306 electoral votes, easily surpassing the 270 needed to clinch the presidency.

Despite her failure to win the presidency, Clinton's lead in the popular vote hit a new landmark on Thursday. According to an analysis from Cook Political Report, Clinton has received 2.53 million more votes than the president-elect

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