Supporters of Republican president-elect Donald Trump filed a federal lawsuit trying to halt Wisconsin’s ongoing recount of votes in last month’s election, and Michigan’s attorney general on Friday has sued to prevent a recount in his state.
The Wisconsin lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order was filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Madison by the Great America PAC, the Stop Hillary PAC and a Wisconsin voter, Ronald R. Johnson.
The legal filings contend the recount is unconstitutional because it doesn’t satisfy equal protection requirements under the law and may not get done by the Dec. 13 federal deadline to certify the vote, putting Wisconsin’s electoral votes in jeopardy.
No court hearings had been scheduled as of Friday morning. The Wisconsin Department of Justice was reviewing the lawsuit, said Johnny Koremenos, spokesman for Attorney General Brad Schimel.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who requested both recounts and a third in Pennsylvania, has suggested that Trump and his backers would try to delay the recounts to make them hard or impossible to complete by the Dec. 13 deadline for states to certify their election results or have their electoral votes be decided by Congress, which is controlled by Republicans. A spokeswoman for Stein’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment Friday.
With workers in Wisconsin busy recounting votes for a second day, Michigan’s state elections board was meeting about the Trump campaign’s request to deny Stein’s recount request.
In his request to the Michigan Supreme Court to block the hand recount, Attorney General Bill Schuette, like the Trump campaign, argued that Stein cannot seek the “frivolous” recount because she was not “aggrieved” to the point at which a potential miscounting of votes could have cost her the election. She garnered one per cent of the vote in Michigan.
Green Party Leader Jill Stein has initiated presidential vote recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The earliest a Michigan recount could start would be next week. In Pennsylvania, a hearing is scheduled for Monday on Stein’s push to secure a court-ordered statewide recount there.
Elections officials in all three states have expressed confidence in their results. Trump won all three states by narrow margins.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker echoed that sentiment Friday, telling reporters that he doesn’t expect his state’s recount to significantly change the results.
Charlie Wicka, centre, listens as Donald Trump speaks to guests during a campaign stop on April 4 in La Crosse, Wis. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“Anytime there’s a canvass or a recount there’s slight adjustments, but I don’t think you’re going to see a significant adjustment,” the Republican governor said.
Walker also said he’s open to changing the state’s election laws to prevent minor candidates from being allowed to request recounts.
Trump won Wisconsin by about 22,000 votes, or less than one percentage point, over Clinton. Stein requested the recount which began on Thursday and had to be done by Dec. 13.
There is a “realistic risk” the recount may not be done in time of the deadline and the “chaotic rushing necessary” to meet the deadline “creates an imminent unreasonable risk of error that can lead to votes being erroneously counted, disregarded, or diluted,” the motion for a temporary restraining order in Wisconsin contends.
Michigan’s elections board on Friday was considering Trump’s request to block a hand recount of all 4.8 million ballots cast in the state. He defeated Clinton there by about 10,700 votes.
A worker looks over results during a statewide presidential election recount Thursday. Trump won Wisconsin by less than a percentage point over Hillary Clinton. (Morry Gash/Associated Press)
In their filing to the election’s board, Trump’s lawyers argued that Stein, a “bottom-dwelling candidate,” shouldn’t be allowed to force an expensive and time-consuming recount. They also said in their objection that Stein waited until the last minute to file her recount petition Wednesday, making it impossible to finish by the Dec. 13 deadline.
Stein countered Thursday that Trump’s “cynical efforts to delay the recount and create unnecessary costs for taxpayers are shameful and outrageous.”
The first reporting of recount results was expected Friday in Wisconsin.
Recounts were not expected to flip nearly enough votes to change the outcome in any of the states.
Stein has argued, without evidence, that irregularities in the votes in all three states suggest that there could have been tampering with the vote, perhaps through a well co-ordinated, highly complex cyberattack.