Hillary Clinton 2020: Because America Hasn’t Suffered Enough.
Hillary Clinton declared Saturday, through her campaign, that she supported the recount process in Wisconsin started by Green Party candidate Jill Stein and would support potential recounts in two other closely contested states, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The margin in these states is small in terms of percentage, but still pretty darn large in terms of actual votes.
In Michigan, the first count found Trump leading by 10,704 votes.
Michigan’s Board of Canvassers is scheduled to certify the state’s election results at 2 p.m. Monday. After those results are certified, Stein has until Wednesday to request a recount through the Secretary of State. If that happens, a tedious and expensive process will begin to hand count the 4,799,284 ballots cast in the presidential race in the state.
The Michigan Secretary of State’s office said Saturday it is researching how federal law affects the timeline to complete a recount, but it anticipates that a recount would have to be done before Dec. 19 when the electoral college, including the 16 people who make up Michigan’s, meets to cast its votes for president, said spokesman Fred Woodhams.
To cover the cost, Stein, as the person requesting the recount, will have to pay $125 per precinct – 6,300 in Michigan – for a cost of $787,500.
In Wisconsin, Trump leads by 22,525 votes. In Pennsylvania, he’s ahead by 68,030 votes.
In 2011, a recount in a Wisconsin State Supreme Court race found an additional 310 votes for the Democratic challenger – with a remaining margin of 7,006 votes.
The explanation from the Clinton camp is that they don’t expect the results to be reversed – they’re just going along with Stein’s effort to reassure the public!
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.
This morning Ron Fournier, who’s been covering the Clintons since the 1980s, offers an intensely groan-inducing report: “Raising doubts about legitimacy of election, even w/out overturning result, is part of Clinton’s plans to keep her options open for 2020… Make some calls. You’ll hear the same from her confidants.”
Yes, we may not be as finished with Hillary Rodham Clinton as we thought we were.
If you think you’re depressed about the thought of Hillary Clinton 2020, imagine how Democrats feel! If you’re any Democrat with presidential ambitions, you might end up sidelined for yet another cycle as the woman who managed to blow a presidential race with more advantages than any other candidate ever gives it one more shot! Sorry, Corey Booker, Kamala Harris, and every other rising star: the 73-year-old Clinton, who’s only won two general elections in her life against a pair of tomato can Republicans, is entitled to the nomination for one more chance against an incumbent!
You know who’s thrilled about the idea of Hillary Clinton 2020? Anyone involved with fundraising for the Clinton Foundation. They can finally tell those angry foreign governments that they might get some belated return on their investment!
As noted this weekend, the recount fundraising effort by Jill Stein is proving wildly lucrative, with more than $6.2 million now in her account for “election integrity efforts and to promote voting system reform.”
Suckers.
Keeping Perspective on the Allegations of Voter Fraud in Virginia
I’m surprised to see Virginia on the list of states Trump is complaining about, since it has fairly stringent voter ID laws. I’ve seen people declaring, “poll workers don’t check signatures or ID,” which is odd, because I’ve had to show ID and tell the worker my home address on file every time I’ve voted, whether voting early in-person absentee or on Election Day. In order to cast a ballot that counted, an illegal immigrant would have to obtain government-issued ID listing their address in the state.
Even if you’re a mischief-minded voter registration group who manages to register someone under a false name, you would then have to obtain false photo identification under that name for that person. Shortly before Election Day, one man was charged with filing false documents:
A Virginia man was also charged with submitting falsified forms while working for a voter-registration campaign, state prosecutors said.
Vafalay Massaquoi, 30, was arraigned on two felony counts of forging a public record and two counts of voter registration fraud.
“There is no allegation that any illegal vote was actually cast in this case,” said Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter. “Furthermore, since the fraudulent applications involved fictitious people, had the fraud not been uncovered, the risk of actual fraudulent votes being cast was low.”
In late September, the Virginia Voters Alliance found 1,046 noncitizens registered to vote in eight counties. It’s worth noting that most of those eight counties are in the top 20 in terms of population. Topping the list was Prince William County with 433; that county is the third most-populated in the state, with about 430,000 residents.
Not every county had gobs and gobs of people illegally registered to vote. The City of Fairfax (a separate entity from Fairfax County) has about 23,000 residents; the VVA report found 20 nonresident aliens registered to vote. Roanoke County, home to 92,000 people, found 22; Hanover County, home to about 100,000 people, found 28. This is the sort of thing that responsible elections officials and prosecutors should examine closely, but those of us concerned about voter fraud have a responsibility to not overhype this, lest we sound like Chicken Little.
For perspective, Hillary Clinton’s margin in Virginia was 212,030 votes. Did some illegal immigrants or noncitizens cast ballots in Virginia in 2016? Considering the number of people registered to vote who are not eligible to vote, it is likely. Did they do it in numbers large enough to swing a race, even at the local level? We’re a long way from proving that. In case you’re wondering, the closest race on the ballot in Virginia in 2016 was a special election for the House of Delegates’s 93rd district, which includes parts of Williamsburg, James City, and Newport News, where Democrat Michael Mullin beat Republican Heather Cordasco by 2,783 votes.
What Your Loved Ones Need to Unwrap This Holiday Season
It’s Cyber Monday, which is what you turn to after sustaining serious injuries while shopping on Black-and-Blue Friday. Start with National Review caps and t-shirts, Jay Nordlinger’s latest books, treasuries for children, Roman Genn’s original art from the magazine.
This is the time of year where I ingratiate myself with my coworkers by touting their books. My colleagues are a creative bunch, with works stretching far beyond the realm of daily politics.
There must be someone on your gift list who needs one of Jonah Goldberg’s books, Liberal Fascism and The Tyranny of Clichés. Or Kevin Williamson’s books. The boss’s books, from Abe Lincoln to a spy thriller to the Clinton legacy. Or Victor Davis Hanson’s works of history. Or Charles C.W. Cooke’s The Conservatarian Manifesto. Or Yuval Levin’s varied works. Or Richard Brookheiser’s biographies of the Founding Fathers. Or Andrew McCarthy’s works on the jihad and law enforcement. Or John J. Miller’s fiction and true tales stranger than fiction. Or James Lileks’ hilarious strolls through the awful choices of food, fashion, interior décor that most would prefer to erase from history. Or Kathryn Jean Lopez’s How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice: Civil Responses to Catholic Hot Button Issues. Or David French’s Rise of ISIS.
Over on Amazon, you can find Heavy Lifting, The Weed Agency, and 2006’s Voting to Kill (available for resale for a penny, hard to beat that price).
ADDENDA: The editors, summing up the life of Fidel Castro, remind us that he “banned Christmas from 1969 to 1998.”
Here’s some footage of Fidel Castro tripping and falling flat on his face, to start the week off just right:
