After nearly two weeks raising money to recount votes from last month’s US presidential election, Jill Stein will no longer pursue the recount in Pennsylvania. Recount requests are still pending in Michigan and Wisconsin.
The former Green Party candidate’s case in Pennsylvania was withdrawn today (Dec. 3), according to the Associated Press, because the party couldn’t afford the required $1 million bond.
“The judge’s outrageous demand that voters pay such an exorbitant figure is a shameful, unacceptable barrier to democratic participation,” said Stein in a statement. “This is yet another sign that Pennsylvania’s antiquated election law is stacked against voters. By demanding a $1 million bond from voters yesterday, the court made clear it has no interest in giving a fair hearing to these voters’ legitimate concerns over the accuracy, security and fairness of an election tainted by suspicion.”
She tweeted:
Stein announced Nov. 23 that she would start raising money to fund the recounts, after computer scientists suggested that ballot machines could have been hacked. She raised more than $6 million in donations to pay for filing and legal fees, approaching her goal of $7 million. That goal was later revised up to $9.5 million.
Recount requests have been filed in Michigan and Wisconsin, amid litigation by local Republicans and Donald Trump. The president-elect, who won by narrow margins in all three states, has described the recount initiative as a “scam.”
Abandoning the recount in Pennsylvania means giving up on any slim hope of revising the Nov. 8 presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton. Although the Democratic candidate leads the popular vote by 2.5 million, Clinton would have had to win recounts in all three states in order to overturn Trump’s lead in the electoral college.