Judge rejects request to end Wisconsin’s recount

A federal judge has tossed out a request by supporters of President-elect Donald Trump to halt Wisconsin's ongoing presidential election recount.

By Friday's court hearing, the recount was nearly 90 percent complete and showed only minuscule changes to Trump's narrow margin of victory.

Great America PAC, Stop Hillary PAC and Wisconsin voter Ronald R. Johnson filed in Wisconsin's Western District Court last week to halt the recount.

The PACs' attorneys argued in court Friday that the recount could jeopardize Wisconsin's ability to meet a Dec. 13 federal deadline to resolve disputes about the presidential election. The deadline is meant to ensure all states can participate in the Dec. 19 Electoral College vote, which formally picks the next president.

Judge James D. Peterson last week rejected the plaintiffs' bid for an immediate halt to the recount. In a court hearing Friday lasting only about 20 minutes, Peterson quickly dismissed the plaintiffs' claims, saying they are 'predicated all on rank speculation.”

'I don't have the basis for stopping the recount,” Peterson told the plaintiffs' attorneys.

The plaintiffs' attorneys argued that a potential appeal of the recount by the campaign of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who requested the recount, could jeopardize Wisconsin's ability to have its electoral votes counted.

Peterson brushed aside those concerns, saying the law clearly ensures that 'Wisconsin's electoral votes are going to count.”

Assistant Attorney General Michael Murphy, who defended the state in the court hearing and argued the recount should continue, told Peterson the recount 'is on time; it is going smoothly.”

'There's no evidence of a problem here on either the timeline or the mechanics,” Murphy said.

State Elections Commission director Michael Haas told reporters after the hearing that he expects all counties to complete the recount no later than Monday afternoon.

So far the recount has shown a negligible change in Wisconsin's presidential vote, which favored Trump on the initial count by about 22,000 votes, or less than one percentage point.

About 88.5 percent of Wisconsin's votes had been recounted, according to a Friday afternoon report from the Elections Commission. Democrat Hillary Clinton had netted a gain of 49 votes on her margin with Trump, according to figures provided by the commission that did not include City of Milwaukee vote totals.

Stein requested recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania - three states that tipped the Electoral College to Trump, and where polls did not predict his victories.

Her campaign paid Wisconsin state officials $3.5 million to cover recount costs.

Trump supporters have gone to court to halt the recounts in all three states. They scored a win in Michigan, where a federal judge has halted that state's recount. The Michigan Supreme Court was set to review an appeal in the case, prompting recusals from two judges on the court, Robert Young and Joan Larsen, who were on Trump's list as prospective U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

Michael White, the co-chairman of the Wisconsin Green Party who has coordinated recount volunteers for the Stein campaign, told reporters Friday that Stein's request for a Wisconsin recount is not motivated by a desire to change the election's outcome.

Instead, White said it's about examining the discrepancy between exit polls and election results. A recount, he said, will allay concerns that those discrepancies could be due to problems in how votes were counted.

'We don't have anything to gain except assuring election integrity,” White said.