The Trump camp listed three objections. [ http://www.michigan.gov/documents/sos/Objection_to_Recount_Petition_544089_7.pdf ] First, that Jill Stein wasn’t aggrieved by the election results. Second, the recount can’t happen because it would prevent Michigan’s electoral college votes from being counted, and third, the Trump team claims that Stein’s application wasn’t properly signed and sworn.
All three of these objections are pretty weak, and they suggest that Trump is trying to get the recount in Michigan stopped on a technicality. Trump leads in Michigan by a little more than 10,000 votes. It is possible that he could lose the state on a recount.
Trump’s objection is also an indication that the recount is making Republicans nervous.
The odds of the election result being reversed by recounts in three states are slim, but if even one state flips to Clinton in the recount, it will further damage the perception of Trump’s election win. Trump is already going to lose the popular vote by at least 2.5 million votes. If he lost Michigan and a second state, he would be viewed as a president who skated into office by the skin of his teeth on the basis of the electoral college with no mandate to govern at all.
The integrity of the electoral process is at stake, which is why the recount must move forward, and Trump’s bid to stop the recount will only serve to fuel voter doubts about the result of 2016’s presidential election.
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