Students and faculty weigh in on whether it’s worthwhile or ethical

Meghan Fellows, Staff Writer

As the dust from the aftermath of the election settles, there is one lone ranger who is not sticking to the status quo of the Electoral College – Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

In the past week, Stein has demanded a recount of votes in key battleground states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

According to a Newsweek article from this past Monday, Stein raised enough money for the recount, outraged by the fact that Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote. Hillary Clinton had two million more popular votes than the President-elect.

Veteran voters rights attorney, John Bonifaz, stated that there is grounds for a recount, but many partisans flee the scene after the election is over.

“My experience is that once the election is over and projections are made, the partisans walk off the stage,” Bonifaz said. “They don’t stick around to look at the anomalies. It’s up to the integrity community to make the case if necessary. We shouldn’t necessarily accept the machine tally on election night. The work primarily is around proving our voting systems are verifiable and trustworthy.”

He also stated that if the tallies are different than they were during election night, then an investigation will occur.

“If discrepancies are shown, it will open the door to further investigation,” Bonifaz said. “There will have to be a forensic evaluation of machines. There will likely be litigation as well.”

Government Professor, Luke Perry, believes that the money being used for the recount could be put to better use.

“I think the recount has little to no chance of changing the outcome,” Perry said. “It’s remarkable that the Russian government sabotaged the presidential election in favor of Trump through cyber-attacks and fake news, but there is no evidence to suggest they or anyone else directly interfered with voting procedures. The money raised by Jill Stein could be used in more effective ways.”

When the results from the election came onto his television screen, Perry was shocked, as many of the rest of us were as well.

“This was the biggest campaign upset in modern American politics,” Perry said. “Nearly all analysts and pundits predicted a Clinton victory. Even Donald Trump didn’t think he was going to win. He stopped fundraising prior to the election and his top advisors thought he was going to lose election night.”

Danielle Stoecker, a junior at UC, believes that people need to deal with the hand that was dealt and start unifying as a country.

“I think it’s absolutely crazy,” Stoecker said. “When Donald Trump said he would challenge the vote count when all was said and done if Clinton won, Clinton said that a recount would be awful and damaging to democracy. Now, she’s condoning it that she lost.”

Along with many students, she was also surprised by the election results.

“The entire situation is crazy,” Stoecker said. “The nation spoke and what’s done is done. It’s time to unify the country and move forward.”