On Wednesday, November 9, shortly after 11:50 am, Hillary Clinton uttered the words that tens of millions of Americans never thought they would hear: “Donald Trump is going to be our president,” Clinton told a crowd of supporters who had gathered in New York, many certain they would be celebrating an historic victory. “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.” It was a gracious acceptance of a crushing defeat, and it seemed the speech was likely to serve as the conclusion of Clinton’s decades-long, glass-ceiling-shattering political career. Now, however, a group of election lawyers and prominent computer scientists are insisting that in light of new findings about the integrity of the 2016 election, Clinton owes it to the American people to contest Trump’s victory. According to New York magazine, the group – led by voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society – revealed this week that they’ve uncovered persuasive evidence that the election results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been hacked . All three states went for Trump in 2016 after being won by President Obama in 2012. If they had gone blue again this year, it’s Clinton, not Trump, who would have secured the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the election. At this point, the group is not publicly speaking on its findings, and is instead focusing on privately lobbying the Clinton campaign to take action. Sources say on Thursday of last week, activists held a conference call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias. The group reportedly presented findings indicating that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic voting than in counties with paper ballots. Based on those numbers, analysts believe she may have been denied upwards of 30,000 votes in that state. She lost Wisconsin by just 27,000 votes. Despite Clinton’s concession, there’s still ample reason to call Trump’s victory into question. In addition to the fact that he lost the popular vote by more 1.7 million ballots (with several million more votes left to be counted, most in Democratic strongholds like California and New York), Trump may find himself coping with an Electoral College revolt led by “faithless electors” hoping to leave the decision of who will be our next president in the hands of the GOP-led House of Representatives. View Slideshow: Donald Trump Wins Presidency, Twitter Reacts The new information possibly indicating widespread election fraud may represent Clinton’s last, best chance at delegitimizing Trump’s victory. Unfortunately, her campaign is running out of time in which to contest the results. The deadline in Wisconsin to file for a recount is Friday; in Pennsylvania, it’s Monday; and Michigan is next Wednesday.
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Hillary Clinton: Activists Urge Candidate to Challenge Election Results in Three Swing States
