Nov 23, 2016

Top Comp Scientists, Election Attys Want Recount of Wisc, Michigan and Pennsylvania

A prominent group of computer scientists and election attorneys has met with the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign chair and general counsel to call for a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Gabriel Sherman reports in New York magazine.

The call for three swing-state recounts follows the unprecedented foreign intervention in the presidential campaign by international and Russian hackers, widely publicized before Election Day.

"A growing number of academics and activists are calling for US authorities to fully audit or recount the 2016 presidential election vote in key battleground states, in case the results could have been skewed by foreign hackers," reports Jon Swaine in The Guardian.

As noted via the Election Law site, Sherman reports:

Hillary Clinton is being urged by a group of prominent computer scientists and election lawyers to call for a recount in three swing states won by Donald Trump, New York has learned. The group, which includes voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, believes they’ve found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked. The group is so far not speaking on the record about their findings and is focused on lobbying the Clinton team in private.

Last Thursday, the activists held a conference call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias to make their case, according to a source briefed on the call. The academics presented findings showing that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots.

Wisconsin voting rights activists have for years eyed with suspicion the over-performance of Republicans in red and purple counties using electronic-voting machines. They want verification to promote confidence in election results, and to protect voting rights.

In Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Trump leads Clinton by 0.8%, 0.2% and 1.1%, respectively, according to data compiled by David Wasserman @Redistrict, Cook Political Report @CookPolitical.

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