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Jill Stein asks for another $2.5 million after reaching goal to fund election recounts in two states

Jill Stein asks for another $2.5 million after reaching goal to fund election recounts in two states

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Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Holds News Conf. In Washington
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Jill Stein has now crowdfunded more than $4.5 million to cover the costs of election recounts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The Green Party presidential candidate has since upped her requested total to $7 million, a figure that she says would also cover a recount in Michigan, a hotly contested battleground state where “statistical anomalies” in voting were identified.

Stein launched the crowdfunding campaign for recounts in the three swing states on Wednesday, and picked up the $2.5 million she initially requested in less than 24 hours. The Green Party had originally indicated that $2.5 million would cover the filing fees for recounts in the three states — with an additional $1 million in attorney fees required later on — but changed its campaign’s wording soon after to specify that the first total would only cover a recount in Wisconsin.

There’s no guarantee the recounts will go ahead

Stein says that the recounts are not intended to help Hillary Clinton, functioning instead as part of an “election integrity movement” that aims to “shine a light on just how untrustworthy the US election system is.” There’s also no guarantee the recounts will go ahead, with the money raised going toward filings that may be turned down. That said, if recounts do take place, and Trump’s victory in all three states is overturned, Clinton would technically have the edge in electoral college votes — 278 to the Republican candidate’s revised 260.