A judge in Wisconsin has ordered that the statewide recount can go on—a week after it started, reports have indicated.
It doesn’t really matter in the long-run, however—82 percent of ballots have been counted in the state, with Hillary Clinton gaining 61 votes on Donald Trump. The president-elect won the state by about 22,000 votes. The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported that “47 of 72 counties have now completed the recount,” and that eight in ten ballots in the state have been counted. It showed that Trump gained 495 votes and Clinton gained 556 votes.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested the recount, saying election machines may have been compromised, without providing evidence. But two pro-Trump groups, the Great America PAC and the Stop Hillary PAC, filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month to stop the process.
On Friday, Judge James Peterson refused to grant their request. He noted that the recount is almost over and there’s almost no chance the election results will be changed, WCVB-TV reported.
According to WCVB-TV, the judge called the Republican PACs’ “lawsuit dead on arrival and said he would decide whether to dismiss the lawsuit outright within the next few days.”
