More Bad News For Jill Stein As Pennsylvania Judge Blocks Recount Petitions

As most people are still trying to figure out exactly what Jill Stein is doing and why she's doing it, a judge in Montgomery County Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia, has decided he's seen enough. After hearing arguments from attorneys representing Jill Stein’s campaign and the Montgomery County Board of Elections, Judge Bernard A. Moore dismissed the petitions of voters in 78 precincts to recount votes or forensically analyze voting machines due a lack of evidence and improperly filed petitions. Per The Times Herald of Montgomery County:

“What we keep going back to is that our voting machines are not connected to the internet,” said board of elections Solicitor Nicole Forzato. “Montgomery County takes great, great pride in being concerned about its infrastructure for IT generally, and they have gone through a vigorous process to make sure our technology general, including voter services technology and the voting machines are safe and secure to use. ”

The judge did not give an explanation of his dismissal, but objections made by Forzato focused on two areas: first, that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the machines had been tampered with in any way and second, that the petitions were not filed properly with the proper fees.

Stein campaign attorney Ilann Maazel argued that voting machines throughout Pennsylvania were vulnerable to hacking. He stated that the effort to request a recount or analysis of the machines was to make sure every vote was counted.

“We know that Donald Trump won the vote of machines in Pennsylvania. We want to know who won the vote of the people,” Maazel said.

Maazel also argued that the manner in which the petitions were filed, county-by-county and district-by-district, was a result of “byzantine” election statutes in the commonwealth.

“They’re requiring fees that don’t exist, they are proposing deadlines that don’t exist,” Maazel said. “The Republican Party is saying that over 27,000 people in 9,000 districts have to request a recount or there can’t be a recount anywhere. What kind of system is that? That is a disgrace.”

Of course, this result is not terribly shocking given that even Jill Stein admits there is "no evidence of fraud at the ballot box."

Dr. Jill Stein: At this point, there is no evidence of fraud at the ballot box https://t.co/kmTJr2r9XX https://t.co/WgtiXav4WX
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 29, 2016

As we noted yesterday, Jill Stein was also defeated in a Wisconsin court for failing to present any credible evidence of vote tampering.

While this should come as a shock to precisely no one other than some disaffected Hillary supporters who were hoping for a miracle, Jill Stein's request for a full "hand recount" in the state of Wisconsin has officially been denied by Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn. According to the StarTribune, the request was denied after the judge found that Stein failed to show any mistakes or irregularities that would bring a machine recount into question.

A Wisconsin judge has refused to order local officials to conduct the state's presidential recount by hand.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein requested the recount last week. She alleged — without evidence — that the state's voting equipment may have been hacked.

The state Elections Commission has ordered the recount to begin Thursday but rejected Stein's request that county clerks conduct the recount entirely by hand. Stein filed a lawsuit seeking an order for a statewide hand recount.

Stein's attorneys argued during a hearing Tuesday evening that the best way to determine if a cyberattack occurred is to check ballots by hand against electronic tabulations from Election Day. State lawyers countered there's no evidence to suggest any attack took place.

Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn refused to issue the order, saying Stein's team failed to show any mistakes or irregularities that would bring a machine recount into question.

It's time to let this one go, Jill. It was a good effort.

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