Jill Stein Explains Recounts Are 'About Ensuring That All Votes Are Counted'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein says her efforts to force recounts in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin are "about ensuring that all votes are counted and that voters can trust the system.''
Stein made the comments Monday outside of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The news conference had a circus-like atmosphere, as some of President-elect Donald Trump's supporters heckled Stein.
"We will not give in to intimidation, to legal maneuvering, and to bureaucratic obstruction," Stein said.
Stein said archaic voting machines vulnerable to cyber attacks, voter irregularities and the discovery of thousands of blank ballots near Detroit sent up red flags that errors could have been made during the election, WCBS 880's Kelly Waldron reported.
Stein said the recount is not about changing the outcome of the election, but making sure that every vote is counted.
"Whether it will change the outcome, we don't know, and I think it would be unfair to raise expectations that the outcome is going to change, that's not our intent," Stein said.
Trump narrowly defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in all three states on his way to victory. Stein won about 1 percent of the vote in each of the three states.
Oakland County, in the Detroit area, started re-counting its votes Monday after a federal judge ordered elections officials to get the process moving to meet a Dec. 13 deadline. Ingham County also started Monday, and other counties will follow this week. Michigan's appeals court will hear arguments Tuesday on a Trump request to halt the recount.
Green Party lawyers filed a lawsuit in a Philadelphia federal court on Monday asking a judge to order a recount of Pennsylvania's presidential election results.
Wisconsin's recount started last week. Six counties have completed recounting ballots in the presidential race and the margin between winner Trump and Clinton has not changed.
Both Clinton and Trump lost 20 votes each in the six counties that had finished as of Monday morning. Trump won Wisconsin by about 22,000 votes. The recount that began Thursday was requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein. She also requested recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission says no significant issues have been reported after four full days of recounting. It says any changes between canvass results and recount totals have been due to human error.
The Elections Commission says the recount is on track to be done by the state-imposed deadline of 8 p.m. Dec. 12. All states must certify election results by Dec. 13.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)