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1 Robert Timothy Reagan, Swing-State Recounts in the 2016 Presidential Election 1 (2018)

handle is hein.congcourts/fjcswsr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: CASE STUDIES IN EMERGENCY ELECTION LITIGATION Swing-State Recounts in the 2016 Presidential Election Great America PAC v. Wisconsin Elections Commission (James D. Peterson, W.D. Wis. 3:16-cv-795), Stein v. Thomas (Mark A. Goldsmith, E.D. Mich. 2:16-cv-14233), and Stein v. Cortis (Paul S. Diamond, E.D. Pa. 2:16-cv-6287) Following the 2016 presidential election in which a candidate earned more votes in the Electoral College than the candidate who received the most popular votes, a minor party candidate sought re- counts in the three states that the Electoral College victor won by the smallest margins. The matter was litigated in state courts and in federal courts in the Western District of Wisconsin, the Eastern District of Michigan, and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania with mixed results for the minor party candidate's litigation efforts and no change in the Electoral College outcome. The Pennsylvania case ended with a settlement agreement requiring a change in voting technology and a payment of attorney fees. Subject: Recounts. Topics: Recounts; election errors; voting technology; matters for state courts; laches; intervention; recusal; case assignment; Electoral College; attorney fees. In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump earned 306 electoral votes, and Hillary Clinton earned only 232 electoral votes, but Clinton received over 2.8 million more popular votes than Trump did.' Green Party candidate Jill Stein sought recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the three states that Trump won by the smallest margins.2 A computer scientist had called into question the reliability of some voting machines used in those states. An effort to recount the votes ... led by Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, was never viewed as very likely to change Donald J. Trump's election to the presi- dency, but it revealed something else in stark terms: 16 years after a different presi- dential recount in Florida dragged on for five agonizing weeks, bringing the nation close to a constitutional crisis, recounts remain a tangle of dueling lawyers, hy- perpartisanship and claims of flawed technology.4 1. See Jonathan Martin & Michael Wines, Trump's Win, but Little Else, Is Now Settled, N.Y. Times, Dec. 20, 2016, at Al; Jo Craven McGinty, The Numbers: Popular-Vote Push Fac- es Some High Hurdles, Wall St. J., Dec. 3, 2016, at A2; Ed O'Keefe, Electoral College Casts Votes for Trump, Wash. Post, Dec. 20, 2016, at Al; Susan Sullivan & Ed O'Keefe, Electors for Trump Urged to Have Second Thoughts, Wash. Post, Dec. 7, 2016, at A4. 2. See Michael A. Memoli, A Look at Wisconsin's Recount, and Why It's Unlikely to Change a Thing, L.A. Times, Nov. 30, 2016, at A2; Byron Tau, Green Candidate Requests a Recount, Wall St. J., Nov. 26, 2016, at A4. 3. See Tau, supra note 2. 4. Monica Davey, Steve Eder & Julie Bosman, Recounts Remain a Political Horror Show, N.Y. Times, Dec. 10, 2016, at All. Federal Judicial Center 12/3/2018 1