Hillary Clinton’s campaign is a-ok with Jill Stein’s quixotic decision to spearhead a vote recount in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, an effort for which she’s already raised over $5.6 million. “What the hell, let the old girl try,” Clinton probably chuckled, pulling a long drag of some high-grade Indica from under a hand-woven Alpaca blanket.
In a post on Medium, Marc Elias, the campaign’s general counsel, wrote that he does not suspect instances of widespread voter fraud or interference from Russia, even though the country was responsible for hacking the DNC, leaking a trove of the Clinton administration’s emails and even disseminating much of the “fake news” that has come to dominate post-election discussion. Despite all this, Elias writes that the campaign took a number of steps to rule out any external tampering that may have swayed the election.
But hey, if Jill Stein wants a recount, Hillary’s team is prepared to sober up, peel off their sweatpants and get to work, too:
Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not planned to exercise this option ourselves, but now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides. If Jill Stein follows through as she has promised and pursues recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, we will take the same approach in those states as well. We do so fully aware that the number of votes separating Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the closest of these states — Michigan — well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a recount. But regardless of the potential to change the outcome in any of the states, we feel it is important, on principle, to ensure our campaign is legally represented in any court proceedings and represented on the ground in order to monitor the recount process itself.
Stein has already well exceeded the $2.5 million she initially sought to raise, having incrementally increased her goal to its current $7 million. What she plans to do with the excess cash is murky at best, with her website offering only that “we pledge to use any excess funding for election integrity efforts and to promote systemic voting system reform.” For a fundraising effort built on increasing transparency, you’d think she’d be a little more eager to disclose what she’s doing with all that money, hmm?
It’s unclear exactly what involvement Clinton’s camp will have in the recount. Stein, who is no great fan of Hillary, has explicitly stated that the goal of the recount isn’t to push Clinton to the presidency, but rather to “ensure the integrity of our elections.”
Neither Clinton nor Stein’s campaigns immediately responded to a request for comment.
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
