Judge says Stein "inexcusably" waited till the last minute on PA recount filing.

[pnwmom]

This is in line, IMO, with her waiting till one day before the earlier filing deadlines for precinct recounts to ask 30,000 PA residents to volunteer to fill out and notarize very long, detailed affidavits. Based on her last minute posting, she ended up with enough volunteers for only 100 precincts out of about 9600.

Also, all this started with her missing the original deadline to file for an automatic recount of the whole state. Because she didn't make that filing, her only options were to file separately for each precinct or to file this lawsuit.

I really think she has been doing all this for show . . . and for whatever money remains after the recounts end.

She's still raising money for the recounts, by the way.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/20161213_Federal_judge_to_Jill_Stein_on_recount_request__Too_little__too_late.html

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, "inexcusably waited well past the eleventh hour" in her bid for an election recount, a federal judge ruled Monday in denying her request.

U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond, in an opinion issued one day before the deadline for Pennsylvania to certify the results of the Nov. 8 general election, wrote that capitulating to Stein's last-minute tactics would mean "all of Pennsylvania's six million voters could be disenfranchised."

The Pennsylvania Department of State announced after Diamond's ruling that it had certified the election results.

Stein, who has been seeking a variety of reviews for the presidential ballots in some Pennsylvania counties and other states, narrowed her request during a federal court hearing Friday.

SNIP

[Maru Kitteh]

1. I think it's been mostly about publicity for her, but "the last minute" shouldn't be an excuse to

shut down a recount. Either it was filed inside the deadline or not. Is the deadline supposed to be a subjective marker for a judge to decide or does it mean something?

[uponit7771]

2. +1, doesn't matter if she waited till the last milisecond... democracy timing in this context

[pnwmom]

4. He had a lot more to say than just that. And he says that by waiting

till the last minute on a whole-state filing, they were risking not being able to certify the vote before the 19th. (A requested recount of certain precincts might be able to wait till the last minute, but not of the state.)

This was predictable -- so why did Stein wait till the last minute?

[Maru Kitteh]

6. Then they should revise the deadline.

It's still on them, if they give a deadline, and an applicant files before that deadline, to regard the filing as "on time" because it is.

That being said, I am sure Stein did whatever she could to just skate by and claim to be a victim. I don't believe she was ever interested in a real recount or fighting for democracy. It's advantageous to her to continue as the poor, put upon martyr - oh so oppressed!

Still, the judges argument, at least on the deadline, is crap.

[pnwmom]

7. The judge made that point in combination with others, like this:

As in her federal filing, the state filing "did not include any allegation that hacking had actually occurred," Diamond wrote.

Also, we shouldn't forget that Stein completely missed the original deadline for an AUTOMATIC recount of the whole state that wouldn't have required any judge's ruling. By the time she got her act together, the only options she had were to file for a recount precinct by precinct or to file this lawsuit. She waited till the day before the deadline to even ask for the needed volunteers for the recounts by precinct, so only got a tiny fraction of what was needed.

[Yo_Mama]

26. She didn't meet the deadline. She was asking the judge to overrule the deadline.

It was insane and doomed to fail.

I don't even know what this is all about. I wonder if she does.

It is flatly insane to assert that somehow the Russians futzed the election by hacking machines that aren't connected to the internet.

I hope this ends soon.

[Maru Kitteh]

29. Well, that's entirely different then. The deadline should apply. That was my only point.

Stein is a loon, which is why I didn't put any of my money on a recount with her at the lead. She soils everything she touches.

[Yo_Mama]

38. Up until now I had a somewhat favorable attitude toward her.

This last few weeks has changed that.

[Yo_Mama]

25. She did not meet the legal requirements for a state-wide recount.

This lawsuit was then filed to try to get a judge to overrule state law on the subject.

Presenting no evidence, btw, that anything had occurred.

[Maru Kitteh]

30. Her bats left the belfry long ago. I suspect long-term abuse

of some of "big pharma's" most popular products. But who knows.

[Yo_Mama]

37. I suspect she feels guilty, because her voters might have cost Hillary PA

But I'm not casting recriminations on her for that - she probably didn't expect that outcome.

Still, this recount stuff seems like nothing more than a stunt, and one that isn't particularly good for anyone but her.

[WhiteTara]

3. She is a scammer. From beginning to end. nt

[SoCalMusicLover]

8. At Least She Did Something

Hillary took the standard Democrat procedure and rolled over. It's what we do.

[WhiteTara]

9. Yes, she did something. She scammed

millions of dollars from unsuspecting concerned citizens.

[WhiteTara]

11. Please elaborate.

[Maru Kitteh]

31. Damn. I missed it.

(message removed)

I always miss the really good stuff.

[WhiteTara]

32. He called Hillary Clinton a scammer.

I was hoping s/he would truly reveal themselves, but others knew before s/he did that s/he was a troll.

[NCTraveler]

14. She scammed people.

It does take effort.

[pnwmom]

16. She did something for HERSELF, not for us.

She raised millions of dollars based on the hopes of desperate Dems that she could somehow change the outcome.

But she completely missed the deadline for an automatic deadline in PA.

Then she waited till one day before a deadline to ask for the necessary volunteers for a precinct by precinct appeal -- so she only got 100 precincts out of 9600.

Then she waited till the last minute to file this lawsuit, without even making any allegations of hacking.

Without PA, there was zero chance that any donations to her recount action would change the outcome of the election.

But now that the recounts are over, she gets to keep any residual funds, plus a long list of names of potential suckers for her next campaign.

[WhiteTara]

33. Yep. I could tell she is a scammer from seeing

the picture of her with Tillerson and Putin and others in Moscow.

[Yo_Mama]

39. Thank you for explaining it all so carefully.

What irks me the most about this is that people are getting angry at Hillary Clinton because she didn't do this.

????????

[TheLibIn615]

22. Yeah, she preyed on people's anxiety

and in the process robbed them.

How noble.

[Yo_Mama]

27. Why are you blaming Hillary for not doing the impossible????

The reason Hillary's campaign didn't file was because it wouldn't have changed the results.

To change the election results, recounts in WI, MI and PA would all have had to have changed the outcome. This wasn't going to happen. There is no evidence showing anything more than the usual election errors.

The WI recount was completed and Trump gained 131 votes.

The MI recount, such as it was, is going to produce an audit of precincts with unusual errors. But as far as I can tell, those precincts are precincts that voted very strongly for Hillary, so if anything, a later investigation would increase Trump's margin.

There are a million things we can do to get a better outcome in the 2018 midterms, and from there in 2020, but making up myths and getting hysterical when we can't get rational people to believe in them is only going to hurt us.

[WhiteTara]

34. We're talking Jill Stein, not Hillary Clinton.

[Yo_Mama]

35. I was replying to a post that did blame Hillary Clinton. n/t

[WhiteTara]

36. Thanks for defending Hillary.

Carry On!

[JI7]

40. lol. Stein said there was no difference between trump and Clinton. stein only helped trump and

Herself

[Jean-Jacques Roussea]

5. why have a deadline at all?

That's called a "line"

[Baitball Blogger]

12. If she made it before the deadline, what's the problem?

Why are they changing the goal posts?

[pnwmom]

15. She didn't make any allegations of hacking. For them to subject the whole state

to a last minute recount, the judge wanted that, at the very least.

[NCTraveler]

13. This was a political stunt.

The manner in which she is doing this is just confirming how great our system is. Stein is mentally bankrupt.

[milestogo]

17. Its a hell of a lot for one person to take on.

Let he or she who belongs to a party that also made an effort to verify election integrity cast the first stone.

[pnwmom]

21. If she was serious about this, she would have met the original filing date

for an automatic recount in PA.

But that would have made it too easy, I guess. And then maybe she wouldn't have had so much leftover money at the end to play with.

[KittyWampus]

18. I didn't know the Law was so sensitive to filings made ON TIME.

[pnwmom]

19. When they also don't contain any allegations of wrong-doing -- yes,

they care that the last minute nature of the filing could disrupt the certification.

Also, the judge is aware that Stein didn't bother to file for the automatic recount she could have been granted weeks ago -- simply by filing a request.

[DesmondFoster]

20. I just don't know

I'm sorry, while I enjoyed the Republicans scrambling their eggs over this, I am still not entirely sure of Stein's motives.

And to say that I'm skeptical of whether or not she was truly acting in the best interests of all Americans with her actions is an understatement.

It's been an oddly handled process for certain.

[pnwmom]

23. Welcome to DU, DesmondFoster! n/t

[DesmondFoster]

24. Thanks!

Good to be here.

[Sissyk]

28. She took advantage.

It hurt my heart to see so many Democrats giving $10, $20, and much more in some cases. Several times. Good people that were convinced to spend money they couldn't afford to give because of their fear, and a mad man getting the presidency.

It was obvious she wasn't doing it for Hillary to win in a recount. It was obvious she only wanted money and attention.

Stein used them all. Took their hard earned money.

It's way past very deplorable.

[JI7]

41. Career leftists always want the republicans to win so they can make money

From angry dems.

[fallrey]

42. I am glad we tried on the recount

First of all, people like me gave because we chose to do so. We wanted to know what happened, and we found out some things. Maybe there was no chance it would overturn the results, but it did show that a lot of people wanted the results to be overturned and it exposed some really shady things going on in these states. That focus gave room for other election issues to get at least some hearing and attention. And those of us who supported Clinton needed some way to feel that we were collectively angry and still there and that there is opposition in a big way to Trump.

I think the recount served us well in keeping the opposition to Trump in the light. An action isn't only effective if it achieves the stated goal. In this case the action served to keep this election as NOT NORMAL in the spotlight. That only helps.

I'm not sure why everyone is wanting to say Stein just wanted money. I doubt that. I understand the anger that the Green Party took votes from Clinton. I've been angry about that too. But in the end, we will have to have have more than two parties and it had to start somewhere. I'm satisfied that she did something that I consider positive after the negative impact the Green Party had on the election itself. And with little pushback coming from Democrats at first, what Stein did was important for me on a soul level. I wanted to fight. Haven't given that up but I needed someone to step up right away.

We had to have national attention on our voting system and she helped that happen. Now other ideas, like eliminating the electoral college, the Russian influence, and electoral votes are in the news. They might not have been able to get as much attention without the recount.

Remains to be seen where it will all go and if we can address the suppression of votes that occurred, but again, these have a better chance of being heard now than before the recount effort.

[pnwmom]

43. I would have been more impressed with her effort, and less suspicious,

if she had filed for the automatic statewide recount in PA on time, instead of waiting for a week to announce her recount plans, at which point it was too late to get the automatic recount in PA.

[fallrey]

44. Consider

that the election outcome was a shock and unexpected. Then consider how complex these filings were. Then consider the size of Stein's staff and how much had to be coordinated. Maybe some compassion is due. I'm not sure, not being on the inside of anyone's campaign. And I'm not a Stein supporter. I've been a strong Clinton supporter for a long time. But when I read details of 500 page filings, public appearances, paid attention to the web site, and on and on, I wondered how a relatively small and not-all-that-professional party managed to do it.

I really wish some of the scathing criticism would be tempered by these matters.

I will say that early on, I loved watching the dollars contributed to Stein add up so fast, each increase proof to me that I had company regarding this terrible outcome, and that we wanted to stand up.

[pnwmom]

45. Consider that she affected the election outcome, with her scathing attacks

against Hillary throughout.

Consider that she had dinner with Putin at an RT celebration in Russia last winter.

She's not an ally -- of us, anyway.

[fallrey]

47. I'm with you on that!

[fallrey]

46. Ok, one more thought on PA

I found this article from some time back, about how recounts happen in PA. If I am reading it well, it seems PA is particularly hard to recount for multiple reasons. I think the article suggests that due to the difficulties in PA that made a recount almost impossible to launch, the best course may have been deemed to go to court. What was going on behind the scenes, whether it was indecision, not enough time to prepare given other recount priorities, etc., I don't know.

Here's the link:

http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/pennsylvania-recount-filed-results-deadline-rules-law-election-electronic-voting-machines-hillary-clinton-marc-elias-hack-fraud-russia-trump-jill-stein-hand-count-paper-votes-ballots/