After raising more than $5 million in order to help pay for recount petitions in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said Friday she wanted a hand-counted recount because “this was a hack-riddled election.”
“We are standing up for a voting system we deserve, that we have confidence in, that has integrity and security and that we know is not subject to tampering, malfeasance, hacking, and so on,” Stein said on Facebook Live on Friday. “We deserve that in this election and every election.”
Stein said many voting machines are open to hacking and are filled with security holes. “We have a system,” she said, “that invites tampering.”
That, she said, is why she originally set a crowdfunding goal of $2.5 million on Wednesday, a figure she raised in less than 24 hours. By Friday, that figure had rose to $5 million. As of this writing Saturday morning, she had raised more than $5.6 million, meaning she needs approximately $1.4 million to petition all three states.
Stein filed her Wisconsin recount petition request less than two hours before Friday’s deadline, and the deadline for Pennsylvania and Michigan will arrive Monday and Wednesday, respectively.
Said Stein: “We have a historic opportunity and a very time-sensitive opportunity to stand up right now. We were able to do that thanks to the incredible generosity of so many of you.”
According to Stein, 110,000 people have donated to the cause with an average of $45 each.
Here was Stein’s entire statement on Facebook Live.
Update 1:22pm CT: The Clinton campaign has decided to join forces with Stein in the recount process. Clinton’s team, though, does not seem overly optimistic.
H/T Mediaite
