With Wisconsin’s election board approving a recount on Friday, Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign has announced their plans to take part.
Marc Elias, the campaign’s general counsel, said in an online statement that the campaign felt “an obligation to the more than 64 million Americans who cast ballots for Hillary Clinton”
“We certainly understand the heartbreak felt by so many who worked so hard to elect Hillary Clinton,” Elias wrote, “and it is a fundamental principle of our democracy to ensure that every vote is properly counted.”
“But now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides,” he added.
In a statement, Donald Trump called the recount a “scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded,”
The money raised by Stein is simply a way to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount,” he said.
“The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, ‘We must accept this result and then look to the future.’” added Trump.
John Bonifaz, one of the leaders of the coalition and founder of the National Voting Rights Institute, said he was frustrated over critics were accusing Stein of exploiting disappointment over the election to collect money for her party.
“This was all driven by the nonpartisan election integrity community,” said Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney. “I’m the one who asked Jill Stein to file these petitions.”
“This is going to be a very costly campaign,” said Bonifaz. “But it is something that a lot of people clearly want.”
Elias wrote: “If Jill Stein follows through as she has promised and pursues recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, we will take the same approach in those states as well.
“We do so fully aware that the number of votes separating Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the closest of these states” – Michigan, where the Republican leads by 10,704 votes with the result expected to be certified on Monday –
“well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a recount.“But regardless of the potential to change the outcome in any of the states, we feel it is important, on principle, to ensure our campaign is legally represented in any court proceedings and represented on the ground in order to monitor the recount process itself.”