There will be No Recount in PA: Jill Stein Perpetrating Election Fraud (long-my comments @ end)

I am combining the salient points of an article by Ren Jander, yesterday, on the Pennsylvania recount with other information in an attempt to squelch some of the perpetual hysteria here. It seems some people move the goalposts no matter what happens, or what Trump does.

First, key points of Jander's article: "THERE WILL BE NO RECOUNT IN PENNSYLVANIA: Jill Stein Perpetrating Election Fraud."

Everything you've been reading about a possible recount of the 2016 Presidential Election in Pennsylvania is wrong. There will be no "recount" in Pennsylvania. Book that. It is not speculation. It is legal fact. The broad spectrum of analysis from the blogosphere, Facebook and Twitter is pathetic. Seeing non-lawyer journalists mangle complicated election statutes so brazenly is not only sad but dangerous. It's giving an emotionally triggered part of the electorate false hope. And it simultaneously creates conditions for the destabilization of the nation when hyper-emotional election expectations are thwarted, as they most certainly will be.

As for Jill Stein's successful public cry for millions, she claims at her website that "fundraising for Pennsylvania's voter-initiated recount" has already been complete. The statement is fraudulent on it's face, in that she has been raising a ton of money when, in fact, there will be no "voter-initiated recount". According to Pennsylvania law, no "recount" or "recanvassing" is possible. Trump won by more than .5% of the vote. Had he won by less - according to Section 1404(g) of Pennsylvania Election Code - there could have been an automatic recount ordered.

The next possibility was for voters to allege "fraud or error" in the tabulation of votes by a certain deadline that has already passed. The unofficial county-by-county returns were submitted, according to law, by November 15th, and any petition for a recount alleging "fraud or error" in the counting (or canvassing) of ballots had to be inititated by at least three petitioners within five days after November 15th. Pennsylvania Election Code states at Section 1404(f):

"Returns under this subsection shall be considered unofficial for five (5) days. The county board shall submit the unofficial returns to the Secretary of the Commonwealth by five o'clock P. M. on the Tuesday following the election...At the expiration of five (5) days after the completion of the computation of votes, in case no petition for a recount or recanvass has been filed in accordance with the provisions of this act... the county board shall certify the returns so computed in said county in the manner required by this act."

The recount bird has flown in PA. End of story. Further proof is found in the section of PA Code dedicated specifically to "Recounts", Article XVII(a). While the PA Code does allow ballot boxes to be opened within four months of an election, and machines to be examined within twenty days of an election, any petition for a recount must be timely, within those five days after the unofficial returns are submitted to the Commonwealth Secretary. Section 1703 (a)(1) states:

"Any petition to open a ballot box or to recanvass the votes on a voting machine or an electronic voting system pursuant to sections 1701 and 1702 shall be filed no later than five (5) days after the completion of the computational canvassing of all returns of the county by the county board."

The process within that five day window was rather simple, but unfortunately for those desperate to recount in PA, the deadline has passed. They needed only three voters to allege "fraud of error" as to the counting of ballots. They didn't even need to allege specific facts or to prove the case. Sections 1701 (re paper ballots) and 1702 (re voting machines) both state that the votes shall be recanvassed:

"[I]f three qualified electors of the election district shall file a petition, duly verified by them, alleging that, upon information which they consider reliable, they believe that fraud or error...was committed in the canvassing of the votes...It shall not be necessary for the petitioners to specify in their petition the particular act of fraud or error they believe to have been committed, nor to offer evidence to substantiate the allegations of their petition."

That simple process is gone. Elvis left the recount building after the five days went by. Now, you may have been hearing from Jill Stein that the deadline to recount in Pennsylvania is today, November 28, 2016, twenty days after the election. You've been hearing wrong. The November 28, 2016 deadline is not for a recount. It's a deadline to "Contest" the election. And this is where we call Jill Stein out for conspiring to defraud the electorate as well as defrauding folks donating to her efforts.

The Pennsylvania Election Code makes a clear distinction between "Recounts" and "Contests". Article XVII (a) is titled "Recounts", whereas, Article XVII (b) is titled, "Classes of Nomination and Election Contests." These are two vastly different beasts.

The fraud comes with knowledge of the fact that Jill Stein's website has been collecting millions of dollars in funds for a "voter-initiated recount" in Pennsylvania. Triggering a recount was simple under the statute, and had she been timely in her efforts to enlist Pennsylvania voters, she might have been able to truly use the funds raised to make a recount happen in PA. But she's too late, and yet she's still defrauding people by claiming the money will be used for a "voter-initiated recount." That she may try to use the funds to "Contest" the election instead means that the funds were raised via fraudulent representation. There will be no "recount" under Pennsylvania law.

Jill Stein should really stop now and come clean with the electorate in PA before leading voters, who might attempt to follow her down the road to contesting the election, to criminal penalties should they commit perjury or fraud in their petitions. Constesting the election - as opposed to petitioning for a recount - involves a process that requires a much higher standard of proof.

Section 1731 requires that one hundred electors (voters) must petition to contest an election for Electors of President and Vice-President in the Court of Common Pleas in Dauphin County. In the statute, all voters generally are discussed as "electors", but don't confuse them with the specific electors who will attend the electoral college (EC) on December 19th. The general electors of the state are simply voters who, in voting for President and Vice-President, are actually voting for a slate of twenty specific electors to vote in the EC.

Section 1756 requires that the petition to contest the election be brought within twenty days of the election, that is by today, Nov. 28th, 2016. Section 1756 also states:

"The petition shall concisely set forth the cause of complaint, showing wherein it is claimed that the primary or election is illegal..."

So this is quite different than alleging the votes were simply mis-counted. The petitioners must allege that the election was illegal. Section 1757 requires that at least five of the one hundred petitioners must file a sworn Affidavit under penalty of perjury:

"Such affidavits shall be taken and subscribed before some person authorized by law to administer oaths, and shall set forth that they believe the facts stated therein are true, that according to the best of their knowledge and belief, the primary or election was illegal and the return thereof not correct, and that the petition to contest the same is made in good faith."

Considering that there is absolutely no evidence that the election in Pennsylvania was illegal, nobody can legally swear out such an affidavit. Evidence is something tangible indicating illegality. Simply alleging that Democrats did better in certain places in past elections is not evidence of illegality. No damn way. And anyone who follows the election piper named Jill Stein down this path is going to be in serious legal jeopardy.

Article XVIII concerns "Penalties" for violating the Pennsylvania Election Code. Section 1802 deals with "Perjury":

"Any wilful false statement made under oath or affirmation or in writing, stating that it is so made, although such oath or affirmation may not have actually been made, by any person regarding any material matter or thing relating to any subject being investigated, heard, determined or acted upon by any county board of elections, or member thereof, or by any court or judge thereof, judge of election, inspector of election, or overseer, in accordance with the terms of this act, shall be perjury, a misdemeanor of the first degree, and any person, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding ten thousand ($10,000) dollars, or to undergo an imprisonment of not more than five (5) years, or both, in the discretion of the court."

Five years in prison is waiting for anyone who fails to heed the warning being offered here today regarding the filing of a petition to contest the election in Pennsylvania.

Recall that Jill Stein's website is not saying she will file the necessary petition in Pennsylvania thereby subjecting herself to this perjury. Instead, she has collected funds for a "voter-initiated recount." If she were honest, she would instead be calling it a voter-initiated contest. And if she were truly concerned with the danger such voters would be in, she would be the one publishing the warnings you are reading now.

Section 1758 requires that the petition to contest the election set out a "prima-facie case". This is a legal term that means a cause of action or defense that is sufficiently established by a party's evidence to justify a verdict in his or her favor, provided such evidence is not rebutted by the other party.

So, in order to petition to contest the election, it will require five PA voters to swear, under penalty of perjury, to facts that, on their face, establish that the election was illegal. If these petitioners have no facts establishing - on their face - that the election was illegal, there will be no contest. The prima facie case must be established before the Court of Common Pleas. Since there are no facts that establish that the election was illegal, anyone making such a petition should fail. And if they play fast and loose with the facts in their petition, they will also be guilty of perjury.

Additionally - wait for it Jill Stein - anyone who is suborning such perjury by fraudulently claiming they are raising funds for a "recount", when in reality they are raising funds for a voter-initiated contest, is guilty of conspiring to commit fraud upon the 2016 election process. Jill Stein knows that there are no facts establishing a prima facie case that the Presidential election in Pennsylvania was illegal.

One of the people most quoted in the run up to this so called recount effort is J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, who wrote a recent article at Medium.com concerning alleged irregularities from swing states in the recent election. This paragraph has gone viral:

Were this year’s deviations from pre-election polls the results of a cyberattack? Probably not. I believe the most likely explanation is that the polls were systematically wrong, rather than that the election was hacked. But I don’t believe that either one of these seemingly unlikely explanations is overwhelmingly more likely than the other. The only way to know whether a cyber attack changed the result is to closely examine the available physical evidence — paper ballots and voting equipment in critical states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, nobody is ever going to examine that evidence unless candidates in those states act now, in the next several days, to petition for recounts.

The highlighted portion above is illustrative as to why there should be no "contest" of the election in Pennsylvania. There is no prima facie case, no facts that, by themselves, establish that the election in PA was illegal. To establish a prima facie case, your petition, if taken at face value - before any rebuttal by the opposing side - must set out facts that, if accepted as true, establish that the election was illegal. Simply wanting to be extra positive that there was no hacking, as Prof. Halderman wishes to be informed, does not meet the standard of establishing a prima facie case.

If Mr. Halderman, and Jill Stein were to carefully read the Pennsylvania Election Code, Articles XIV-XVIII specifically, they would note the rigid careful process that must be followed in each county district before the votes can be certified. It is a rigorous process open to the public by law, and if procedures had been violated, or machines hacked, it's more likely than not that something, some evidence - other than just a result people weren't expecting - would have been noted. No such evidence has been forthcoming.

Now let's talk about conspiracy to defraud the 2016 election in Pennsylvania by Jill Stein.

I find it incredibly rich that Jill Stein's call to action at her website fundraising page states, "Integrity Depends on YOU!" Jill Stein knows there will be no "recount" in Pennsylvania, but she took your money for a "voter-initiated recount". As stated above, recounts and contests are not the same thing. She is defrauding people, and she is tampering with the 2016 election results, and the electorate, and she is calling others into her fraudulent conspiracy, and placing them in legal jeopardy.

Jill Stein is aware of Prof. Halderman's analysis, wherein he states that the elections were "probably not" hacked, and she is still calling the PA voters to action, when there is no legal action they can take. Where is the integrity in that?

"Section 1827. Interference with Primaries and Elections; Frauds; Conspiracy" states:

"If any person shall...conspire with others to commit any of the offenses herein mentioned, or in any manner to prevent a free and fair primary or election, he shall be guilty of a felony of the third degree, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars, or to undergo an imprisonment of not more than seven (7) years, or both, in the discretion of the court."

One of the offenses "herein mentioned" in the Pennsylvania Election Code is perjury. Jill Stein should know that anyone swearing out a petition to contest this election based upon her statements and fund raising literature will be committing perjury. Conspiring to have them do so is a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

There will be no recount in Pennsylvania. There should be no election contest in Pennsylvania either. There are no facts that will support a prima facie case of illegality. Jill Stein should end his in a very public manner, return the funds collected for the fraudulent recount effort in Pennsylvania, and she should pray that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not have a prosecutor with the spine to make a proper example of her.

1) People have been in a dither on Twitter that Trump's lawyers did not appear to contest the "contesting." Well, if you read Jander's analysis, the burden is on Stein to produce a "prima facie" case that there WAS election fraud. In my opinion, and I'm no lawyer . . . *Even if you KNEW when and where this "contesting" was going to be filed---and of course, no one in Team Trump could possibly know that---to send a lawyer at that time to appear would be in fact lending credibility to the suit. As is, a judge would likely say (as Jander notes), "This is silly. Nothing here." But if Trump lawyers appeared, the inclination might be to say "Hmm. If the other side sent lawyers, there MAY be something here."

2) As others have pointed out, three voters from each of the districts would require THOUSANDS of voters to sign petitions. Those petitions---through I'm sure not many read the fine print or even care---make you susceptible to perjury counts if they are deemed frivolous and you knowingly went along. Ain't gonna happen.

On WI: Team Trump told me a week ago, "We're on it. WI locked." In other words, WI is a done deal. The state has now ruled against a hand recount, and Trump has already gained about 500 votes in one county that was recounted.

An aside: I do not understand this entirely in either PA or WI, but I thought Bush v. Gore prohibited selective recounting. I'm told by a Freeper active in PA politics who knows PA election law (Fred Zarguna) that in fact Bush v. Gore doesn't apply here. I accept Fred's conclusion, but still would like to know why, and why ANY recounting of ANY individual county---even the one in WI that gave Trump more votes---is allowed.

All three states have Republican legislatures. Again, I'm no lawyer, but as I understand the law, regardless of what is happening with "contests" or "recounts," when the December dates arrive, things automatically happen.

On December 13: "States must make final decisions in any controversies over the appointment of their electors at least six days before the meeting of the Electors [i.e., Dec. 7!]. This is so their electoral votes will be presumed valid when presented to Congress."

My understanding of the word "states" here is "state legislatures." In other words, on December 7, MI, PA, and WI will have to finalize the electors they submit on the 13th regardless of what is happening. The only way that cannot happen is if there is a state court ruling contrary to the state legislature's actions. IN THAT CASE (I'm guessing), you would have a federal suit over voters' rights being abridged and that would end up in the USSC, and if the court was tied, Bush v. Gore (I think) would be the applicable case. Again, a number of "ifs."

On Dec. 19, the electors that the states have certified meet in their states to formally elect Trump.

Finally, there is controversy over what happens if a state's electors are not decided by the Dec. 13 date. One view is they are excluded from the electoral college and the president is decided by the "majority of the electors," ie, by whoever is there. If all three states (WI, MI, PA) somehow did not show up Trump would still win. If any one of them was "disqualified," Trump would still win. A less accepted view is that the electoral college would not have a quorum and the election would go to the House---where Trump would PROBABLY still win, but the Senate would select the veep and Cankles might win there. As I say, that is not a generally held view.

Uncertainty over that point, however, might be a good reason for Trump NOT asking for recounts in, say, MN or NH or CA or any state with a Dem legislature, because if they saw the opportunity to put in Cankles as veep---and if this view is correct---they would just not certify any electors and throw it to the House and Senate.

Just a few points, mostly terminology but some of it ends up being substantive.

I know that in Florida, and I think the process is similar elsewhere, "certification" is not conclusive. It marks the point at which a contest becomes relevant. There is no winner until the total is certified, and the loser is the person with the right to contest. A contest can involve recounting, and recounting can also happen before certification. Michigan isn't "done" on account of the results being certified.

Bush v. Gore illustrates this. SCOFLA stupidly cherry-picked election law to extend the certification deadline, and robbed Gore of precious time in the contest period. Recounting went on before and after certification.

If the (certified) loser files a contest, the (certified) winner has a few days in which to reply. The winner isn't expected to be prescient and know that the certified results will be contested.

I completely agree with one of the conclusions though. Stein is misleading voters, with the help of the press, and taking advantage of public gullibility.

I don’t understand Michigan. Apparently they’ve more or less done a recount already since they re-canvassed the whole state and just certified yesterday, yet they seem to indicate that they are going to go ahead with a hand-recount of the state stating on Friday. I am so sick of the Clintons, Steins and the rest of the Socialist bastards screwing with this country..

I don’t trust democrats, socialists, liberals, Clintons, etc.

Follow the old advice: Better safe than sorry.

Preparing for war prevents war and also wins war.

I am going to make an educated guess here with the caveat that I do not live in Wisconsin.

If I understand the issue correctly what happened was not exactly a recount. Hillary got 300 some votes and Trump got 484. because of human error when the final tabulation was entered 44 rather then 484 votes were entered for Trump.

When checking before certifying they noted that 440 votes that had been cast for other offices were missing from the presidential tally.

While you do have people that vote down ticket while skipping the presidential race the number was a bit large.

They went back and rechecked and found the number had been entered wrong.

So this was not a selective recount but making the electronic record match the paper record.

I posted in another thread:

The recount efforts aren’t about changing the results, because they won’t. The recount efforts are all about delegitimizing Trump’s presidency from the outset.

By demanding and suing for a recount in PA - despite the fact that the deadline has passed - and suing for a “hand recount” in Wisconsin they delay the reporting of electors from PA, WI and MI for the official tally and certification of the election, which pushes the voting for the president to the House and voting for the vice president to the Senate. By doing so, they create the “narrative” (I hate that word) that Trump was “selected, not elected”.

Interesting to note that the attorney representing Jill Stein’s recount efforts (who has suddenly gotten a lot of notice from the mainstream media), Mark Eric Elias, is a close associate of the Soros family and is fighting the recount for North Carolina’s gubernatorial election.

A mere coincidence, I’m sure...

Apparently they’ve more or less done a recount already since they re-canvassed the whole state and just certified yesterday,

That I can clear up.

We always do a re-canvass and yesterday is the normal day we certify.

It was just never reported as news because it isn't.

To force a recount in Michigan Stein is going on there were more people 85,000 across the state who cast ballots in other races but skipped the presidential.

Out of 4.3 million votes this is a bit higher then usual but this was also an election where the two candidates were disliked by members of their own parties. So there are no real grounds for her claim that 85,000 people managed to fill in a circle for every other issue on the ballot but somehow just "checked" in the presidential race circle and so those ballots must be taken out and checked (no pun intended) to see if there are ANY marks in the presidential race circles.

She will have to file and win a lawsuit for it to happen and the SOS office is getting things ready in case she does.

However in reality the chance of that happening are slim and none and Slim is packing his bags to leave town.

That may be what they are “about,” but trust me, 99% of the American people doesn’t even know these are going on, they have no idea who Jill Stein is, Trump won, Cankles lost and they have already moved on.

So while we political denizens may see it that way, the public sure doesn’t. Waste of time and (thank God) Soros’s money.

What do they mean Cankles might become VP in the Senate? How would that happen? If Cankles became VP does anyone seriously doubt that the murderous criminals would assassinate Trump, or try to declare him mentally incompetent somehow, or do whatever they want to do to obtain power?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.