WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — With the recount in Wisconsin due to begin on Thursday, Stein has decided not to appeal a court’s rejection of her request that all ballots be counted by hand, according to local media reports.
"We need to be voting on pieces of paper," Stein said on The Real News, an internet-based video news site. "If they are counted by hand, that is awesome. If they are counted by these machines, those machines need to be cross checked, we need an audit and in any case we need automatic recounts whenever the vote is close."
At least 56 of the Wisconsin’s 72 counties already plan to conduct some or all of their recounts by hand, constituting about 60 percent of all ballots, the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper reported.
President-elect Donald Trump won all three states, despite predictions by most polls showing rival candidate Hillary Clinton with a lead heading into the November 8 election.
Many US voting districts use machines that leave no paper trail, and even machines that purport to produce hard-copy backups often produce paper that is too frail or fragmented to be accurately counted by hand, Stein said.
Vote integrity became a major issue in the 2016 US election, with multiple reports demonstrating that results tabulated by voting machines can be altered by officials or hackers.
