Jill Stein forfeits recount bids for 2016 presidential election

Jill+Steins+initial+hope+was+to+prove+there+was+faultiness+within+the+voting%2C+but+it+has+changed+to+a+focus+on+voting+reform.+Credit%3A+Alex+Brandon+

Jill Stein’s initial hope was to prove there was faultiness within the voting, but it has changed to a focus on voting reform. Credit: Alex Brandon

Jill Stein, candidate nominee for the Green Party for the 2016 presidential election, has officially ended the recount bids in three key election states: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Only one state went through with the entire process, Wisconsin, where nothing was found. In fact, the recount actually added 131 President-elect Donald Trump. In the other two states, both state and federal court rulings denied a recount. Stein ultimately raised $7.4 million for these recounts.

Sophomore Kieran Singh, a supporter of Democrat nominee, Hillary Clinton, disregards the recounts completely, “The recounts are pointless and nothing will change,” he said. Singh volunteered at the Clinton campaign headquarters in Minneapolis, and though he doesn’t believe that anything will change, he does believe there is a clear purpose to the recounts, “The purpose is to analyze bad votes, but I heard their method won’t even do that. The recounts should still happen just to make people feel better, but if we truly wan’t to solve our voting system we have to abolish the electoral college,” he said.

Stein is still questioning and working partially on voting reform. In Wisconsin, the same process as the initial voting occurred, just a second time. This was the process of putting paper ballots into scanners. If the scanner was indeed broken or “hacked” as Stein has accused, this would be a very redundant approach. In Michigan, 10% of the voting precincts could not be validated as they did not line up with the amount of people who voted, this was very true in Detroit where 60% of the voting precincts couldn’t be validated as well. A Detroit official declared that 87 voting machines had broken, which could easily mean a miscounted number of votes.

Though the recounts have proved that there will be no change and since the electoral college has gone with the rest of the nation, Donald Trump will be the President of the United States. Though this wasn’t Stein’s initial hope, the new evidence and reports suggest that the recounts have sprung questions for the voting system. Singh and Stein both believe that there are many ways the voting system can be improved, like abolishing the electoral college or counting votes by hand, all of which stemmed off of the recount bids. So though Stein initially sought to change results, she now hopes to change the system. Stein even says that if there is any money returned from the recounts, that it will all be focused on voting reform.