For immediate Release – Tuesday, March 1, 2017
Contact:
Recount 2016, Damian Christianson, damianrecount@gmail.com
Count My Vote WI, Dace Zeps, dacezeps@gmail.com
Recount 2016 Releases Preliminary Report for Wisconsin:
Thousands of miscounted votes discovered by recount
The Recount of the Presidential Election in Wisconsin following the November 2016 General Election exposed glaring problems with the way the state certifies elections and conducts recounts. Staff and volunteers for Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein’s Recount 2016 team in Wisconsin have pored over county minutes and observer reports and have released an executive summary of their findings.
While the powers that be in Wisconsin are claiming that the recount revealed nothing unusual, a closer look shows significant and unsettling problems. In fact, the recount changed reported totals by more than 17,000 votes statewide.
Some examples of miscounted votes discovered during the recount:
- 15.7% of the votes cast for Evan McMullin went uncounted in the original results;
- 440 votes in one Oneida County town left out of the certified results;
- 246 votes from one City of Milwaukee polling place were omitted;
- 23.9% of the absentee votes from the City of Marinette were uncounted;
- Hundreds of absentee ballots had been left in their envelopes on Election Day
Rather than address the anomalies and problems in the voting system revealed by the recount, GOP lawmakers, with the support of Scott Walker, introduced a bill in the state Legislature placing further restrictions on the ability to do recounts in the future.
“These legislators act as if recounts are to guarantee candidates’ rights”, says Karen McKim, coordinator of the Wisconsin Election Integrity Action Team, and main author of the report on Wisconsin’s Recount. “The truth is, meaningful audits and recounts secure the rights of voters, who need to be confident that the votes they cast are accurately counted”.
A preliminary executive summary of the report is attached to this release and can also be viewed at http://www.jill2016.com/wi_recount_executive_summary. The final report will be released in conjunction with the Voting Justice and Democratizing Elections, to be held March 17-19 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The conference will include plenaries and workshops featuring local and national experts on election integrity and reforms. The schedule will be kept updated at http://www.jill2016.com/vj_wi.