Report: Stein Pennsylvania Election Lawsuit Hearing Scheduled for Monday

PHILLY.COM:  “RECOUNT” EFFORTS CONCENTRATING ON “SIX VOTE-RICH COUNTIES”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 29, 2016) — A major Pennsylvania newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has scheduled a hearing on a lawsuit filed by attorneys for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein challenging the validity of the state’s election returns from November 8.

Fox News also reported the development Tuesday evening.

Citing news reports that the email accounts of DNC operatives and Hillary Clinton strategists were breached and made public and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had warned in October that an outside entity might attempt to sabotage the upcoming U.S. elections, Stein’s filing includes an affidavit (Exhibit “A,” p. 7) from University of Michigan Computer Science professor J. Alex Halderman, who presented a scenario under which electronic voting equipment might be infected with “malware” by hypothetical “attackers.” However, Halderman was clear in stating that he had seen no hard evidence of actual “hacking” in Pennsylvania or anywhere else.

In its article on Tuesday, Philly.com referred to precinct “recounts” while also having reported on Monday that according to a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, the deadline for any county “recounts” of votes was November 21.

On Monday, Stein told Alan Colmes on his radio show that her requests of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan to provide her with statewide recounts “was not a partisan choice, this was zooming in on the states that have the markings of being most vulnerable to hacking because they had thin margins. They went the opposite way of what was expected and they had some kind of voting system vulnerability.”

Along with today’s development, Philly.com reported:

Besides the Commonwealth Court petition, Stein’s campaign is also helping organize recount efforts at the precinct level in at least a half dozen counties across the state.

A spokesman for Stein’s campaign said Tuesday that such requests have focused on six of the state’s vote-rich counties, including Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks and Allegheny counties. It will be up to judges and elections officials in those counties to act on the petitions.

Ren Jander, JD, has studied Pennsylvania election law extensively and reported on his blog on both Monday and Tuesday that Stein’s attempts to challenge the results of the state’s election outcome cannot succeed if the statute is followed.

According to NPR in its reportage of the Florida Gore-Bush recount which was ultimately halted by the U.S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional, Gore asked for a recount of “in four counties with widespread complaints of voting machine malfunction: Broward, Miami-Dade, Volusia, and Palm Beach.”  As the statutorily-mandated deadline for certifying the state’s votes passed, Gore attempted to secure a court order for Miami-Dade County to be allowed to continue its recount of ballots on which a choice for president was deemed indiscernible.

Wikipedia reports that the four counties Gore wished to be recounted were “predominantly Democratic counties.”