As I am writing this both Jill Stein and Hillary Clinton are both waiting for a recount of votes from the state of Wisconsin. Many called the election a fraud and implied, if not outright said that Donald Trump stole the election.
The first thing that comes into my head is the Bush/Gore election with the recount in Florida and the “Hanging Chad.” Is there such a thing today with the use of modern electronic voting booths? Back in the bad old days of voting, Florida used a paper ballet that used a mechanical process to punch holes in the ballot so that an electronic reader could scan the ballots. And when it was found that many of these holes were not completely open and had a hanging piece of paper in them the recount had to be done by hand.
Jill Stein called for a recount in Wisconsin and raised the needed funds to pay for it. At that point Hillary Clinton stepped in and her general counsel Marc Elias stated that “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.” Me thinks that they are trying to say that this is not finished until the recount(s) are all done.
At this point I am hoping that tales of misconduct during the election will be found to be mostly untrue and the Wisconsin recount will validate the original results. For if it does not there will be a pall cast over this election and Trump’s presidency. During the junior Bush’s first term in office everyone was still wondering if he got into office by fixing the election. Let us all hope that the question(s) that have come up will be answered and things will calm down.
Just to make things even more confusing, again the Electoral College went for Trump, but the popular vote is still being counted. Per the International Business Times “Clinton has registered 64,654,483 total votes, compared to 62,418,820 for Trump, according to a Cook Political Report analysis Monday. That represents a margin of 2,235,663 in the popular vote. Clinton garnered 48.2 percent of the popular vote, while Trump earned just 46.5 percent, good for a 1.7 point margin. Trump, however, picked up wins in key battleground states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan, earning 306 Electoral College votes to Clinton’s 232.”
Many have said that it is time to get rid of the Electoral College system in favor of a pure popular vote one. But you must realize that the college is built-into our Constitution and would require an amendment to change the system. What other problems would that introduce into the political process? Only the future will tell, for now let us move forward and heal our wounds.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
