Election security

Wisconsin elections staff urge rejection of hand-recount

With a tight deadline looming, the staff of the Wisconsin Elections Commission is advising their agency's leaders to reject a request by Green Party candidate Jill Stein to do a painstaking hand recount of the state's presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump.

Their recommendation would leave it to officials in each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties to decide whether to do their recounts by hand. That could mean some counties perform machine recounts while others do them by hand.

Stein is seeking to pay for the recount of the election — in which she received about 31,000 votes, or 1% — to ensure that Democrat Hillary Clinton really lost Wisconsin to Trump by some 22,000. Independent candidate Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente, who received about 1,500 votes, also requested a recount.

Under the staff recommendation, the recount would begin Thursday, provided Stein, De La Fuente or both paid by Tuesday.