Presidential election recount efforts came to an end Monday in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with both states certifying Republican Donald Trump as the winner in contests that helped put him over the top in the Electoral College stakes. Trump's victory in Wisconsin was reaffirmed following a statewide vote recount that showed him defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton by ... </s> The Wisconsin Elections Commission says it has received a petition from Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein to perform a recount of the vote in the state, which was narrowly won by President-elect Donald Trump on his way to victory in the electoral college on 8 November.

“The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States,” the agency's ddministrator Michael Haas said in a statement.

“We have assembled an internal team to direct the recount, we have been in close consultation with our county clerk partners, and have arranged for legal representation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.”

Mr Haas said he would hold a teleconference meeting with county clerks in the coming days and expected that the recount would begin late next week, after Ms Stein's campaign submitted the necessary recount fee, which was still being calculated.

Ms Stein has raised more than $4.7m from a grassroots crowdfunding effort to pay for a manual recount of ballots in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan amid claims from computer experts and electoral lawyers that the vote totals in those states could have been manipulated.

All three states, which Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had been expecting to win, were instead claimed by Mr Trump. While no specific evidence of fraud or irregularity has been cited, the presidential campaign was thrown off track more than once by reported hacks into voter and party databases.

Prominent cybersecurity experts have recently said that although the chances of the election results being tampered with were slim, a recount would be the best way to ensure that results are valid.

“Let me be very clear: We do not have evidence of fraud. We do not have smoking guns. What we do have is an election that was surrounded by hacking,” Ms Stein wrote on her campaign website.

After filing for a recount in Wisconsin, and having raised sufficient funds for a similar petition in Pennsylvania, to be filed by Monday, “We will focus on raising the needed funds for Michigan's recount (due Wednesday),” she added.

In Pennsylvania, which has 20 Electoral College votes, Mr Trump won by roughly 68,000 votes, and in Wisconsin, which has ten such votes, his margin was even smaller: just 27,000. Michigan, which carries 14 votes, is still too close to call, with the difference between the two candidates amounting to fewer than 12,000.

Mr Trump collected 290 Electoral College votes compared to 232 for Ms Clinton. For her to overturn the results, she would need to secure the votes of all three disputed states.

A group including University of Michigan computer science professor Alex Halderman and voting rights activist John Bonifaz contacted Ms Clinton’s campaign after seeing her tallies fell seven per cent short of expectations in counties that used electronic voting machines. Ms Clinton has yet to comment on the claims, or say if she supports a recount. </s> There will be a recount of the US presidential vote in Wisconsin in a blow to Donald Trump's preparation for the presidency.

Failed Green Party candidate Jill Stein has also stepped up her bid to force two other key Midwestern battlegrounds, Michigan and Pennsylvania, to do the same.

In a move that could complicate President-elect Donald Trump's push for national unity as he continues to shape his White House team, Ms Green formally requested a Wisconsin recount on Friday, and vowed to do the same in the coming days in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Wisconsin officials confirmed on Friday evening they would move forward with the first presidential recount in state history.

Ms Stein gained little more than 1 per cent of the national vote, and there is no evidence of election tampering in the states where Mr Trump scored razor-thin victories.

But Green Party spokesman George Martin insisted "the American public needs to have it investigated to make sure our votes count".

He said: "We're doing this to ensure the integrity of our system."

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leads the national popular vote by close to two million votes.

Mr Trump scored narrow victories in key battleground states, however, giving him the necessary 270 electoral votes to assume the presidency.

He won in Pennsylvania, and in Wisconsin, breaking a Democratic winning streak dating back 32 years. Mr Trump also holds a slim lead in Michigan, where a Republican presidential candidate had not won since 1988; The Associated Press still has not officially called that race.

Wisconsin, where Mr Trump leads by little more than 22,000 votes, will conduct an unprecedented presidential recount, state administrator Michael Haas announced, citing requests by Ms Stein and independent candidate Rocky De La Fuente.

"The commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for president of the United States, as requested by these candidates," Mr Haas said, noting that the recount is expected to be completed by the December 13 federal deadline.

In Michigan, Mr Trump's 10,704-vote lead is expected to be certified by the state elections board on Monday. The deadline to ask for a recount is Wednesday.

A statewide recount would cost Ms Stein roughly $790,000, said Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for the Michigan secretary of state.

An opposing candidate would have seven days to file objections to the recount petition, after which the board would schedule a public hearing and later issue a ruling on the objections. </s> Presidential election recount efforts came to an end Monday in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with both states certifying Republican Donald Trump as the winner in contests that helped put him over the top in the Electoral College stakes.

Trump's victory in Wisconsin was reaffirmed following a statewide vote recount that showed him defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 23,000 votes. Meanwhile, a federal judge issued a stinging rejection of a Green Party-backed request for a presidential recount in Pennsylvania that complained the state's reliance on aging electronic voting machines made it highly vulnerable to hacking.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein successfully requested and paid for the Wisconsin recount while her attempts for similar statewide recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan were blocked by the courts.

Stein got only about 1 percent of the vote in each of the three states, which Trump narrowly won over Clinton. Stein argued, without evidence, that voting machines in all three states were susceptible to hacking. All three states were crucial to Trump's victory, having last voted for a Republican for president in the 1980s.

The numbers barely budged in Wisconsin after nearly 3 million votes were recounted. Trump, a billionaire New York real estate mogul, picked up 131 votes and won by 22,748 votes. The final results changed just 0.06 percent.

Trump took to Twitter to celebrate the recount result.

"The final Wisconsin vote is in and guess what - we just picked up an additional 131 votes," he tweeted. "The Dems and Green Party can now rest. Scam!"

Stein said she was disappointed not all Wisconsin counties did hand recounts, although most did. She said the goal of the recount was never to change the outcome but to validate the vote and restore confidence in the system.

"The recount in Wisconsin raised a number of important election integrity issues that bear further assessment and serious action to ensure we have integrity and confidence in our electoral system," she said, without naming what they were.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Chairman Mark Thomsen said before certifying the recount results there was no evidence of a hack.

In Pennsylvania, state officials certified the results of the election in the hours following the decision by U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond.

Trump beat Clinton in the state by about 44,000 votes out of 6 million cast, or less than 1 percent, according to the final tally after weeks of counting provisional and overseas ballots. Green Party voters had petitioned some counties to do partial recounts, affecting few votes, county officials said.

Diamond said there were at least six grounds that required him to reject the Green Party's lawsuit, which had been opposed by Trump, the Pennsylvania Republican Party and the Pennsylvania attorney general's office.

Suspicion of a hacked Pennsylvania election "borders on the irrational" while granting the Green Party's recount bid could "ensure that no Pennsylvania vote counts" given Tuesday's federal deadline to certify the vote for the Electoral College, wrote Diamond, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush.

"Most importantly, there is no credible evidence that any 'hack' occurred, and compelling evidence that Pennsylvania's voting system was not in any way compromised," Diamond wrote.

He said the lawsuit suffered from a lack of standing, potentially the lack of federal jurisdiction and an "unexplained, highly prejudicial" wait before filing last week's lawsuit, four weeks after the Nov. 8 election.

The decision was the Green Party's latest roadblock in Pennsylvania after hitting numerous walls in county and state courts. Green Party-backed lawyers argue it was possible that computer hackers changed the election outcome and that Pennsylvania's heavy use of paperless machines makes it a prime target. Stein also contended Pennsylvania has erected unconstitutional barriers to voters seeking a recount.

A lawyer for the Green Party members said Monday they were disappointed and unable to immediately say whether they would appeal.

"But one thing is clear," said the lawyer, Ilann Maazel. "The Pennsylvania election system is not fair to voters and voters don't know if their votes counted, and that's a very large problem."

A federal judge halted Michigan's recount last week after three days. Trump won Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes out of nearly 4.8 million votes cast. </s> Presidential election recount efforts came to an end today in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with both states certifying Republican Donald Trump as the winner in contests that helped put him over the top in the Electoral College stakes.

Trump's victory in Wisconsin was reaffirmed after a statewide vote recount that showed him defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton by more than 22,000 votes. Meanwhile, a federal judge issued a stinging rejection of a Green Party-backed request to recount paper ballots in Pennsylvania's presidential election and scan some counties' election systems for signs of hacking.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein successfully requested and paid for the Wisconsin recount while her attempts for similar statewide recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan were blocked by the courts.

Stein got only about 1 percent of the vote in each of the three states that Trump narrowly won over Clinton. Stein argued, without evidence, that voting machines in all three states were susceptible to hacking. All three states were crucial to Trump's victory, having last voted for a Republican for president in the 1980s.

The numbers barely budged in Wisconsin after nearly 3 million votes were recounted. Trump, a billionaire New York real-estate mogul, picked up 162 votes and still won by more than 22,000 votes. The final results changed just 0.06 percent.

In Pennsylvania, state officials certified the results of the election in the hours following the decision by U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond.

Trump beat Clinton in the state by about 44,000 votes out of 6 million cast, or less than 1 percent, according to the final tally after weeks of counting provisional and overseas ballots. Green Party voters had petitioned some counties to do partial recounts, affecting few votes, county officials said. </s> “The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,” Commission Administrator Michael Haas said in a statement on the agency's website.

The move follows comments by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein earlier on Friday that her push for election recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania was aimed at assessing the integrity of the U.S. voting system, not at undermining Republican Donald Trump's White House victory.

While Stein's effort this week may have spurred hope among disappointed supporters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the chances of such recounts - if they take place - overturning the overall result from the Nov. 8 election are extremely slim, given Trump's margins of victory in the three states.

Since launching the recount campaign on Wednesday, Stein has raised more than $5 million. The Green Party said it wants to raise $7 million for the recounts, including the cost of legal fees.

The Green Party has said that despite the millions it has raised to fund the recounts, it could not guarantee any would occur and that if its requests were denied or there were surplus funds, it would use the money to push for voting system reforms.

Stein, who won just 1 percent of the national vote herself, told CNN that while there was no evidence of tampering or other voting errors in the election, only a full review in those states would give Americans confidence in the results.

"This was a hack-riddled election," she said, pointing to hacking before the vote of political organizations and individual email accounts, as well as recent media reports citing concerns by computer security experts.

The deadline to request the Wisconsin recount was Friday afternoon, while for Pennsylvania the deadline is Monday and for Michigan Wednesday.

Wisconsin's Haas said that with a federal deadline of Dec. 13 to complete the recounts, county boards of canvassers might have to work evenings and weekends.

The other petitioner for a recount in the state was third-party candidate Rocky Roque De La Fuente, the commission statement said.

Although Trump won narrowly in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the margins make it highly unlikely that any recounts would end up giving Clinton a win in all three states, which would be needed for the overall presidential election result to change. Trump beat Clinton in Pennsylvania by 70,010 votes, in Michigan by 10,704 votes and in Wisconsin by 27,257 votes.

The presidential race is decided by the Electoral College, or a tally of wins from the state-by-state contests, rather than by the popular national vote. The Electoral College results are expected to be finalized when electors meet on Dec. 19.

Trump surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win, although once the final tallies of votes are in, Clinton will have won the national popular vote by more than 2 million votes.

Asked if she was trying to upset Trump, Stein told CNN "Absolutely not," adding that she also did not back Clinton.

A representative for Trump's transition team on Thursday had no comment on Stein's effort. In a Twitter post on Thursday, senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway cited a New York Times article and mocked Clinton supporters who "can't accept the election results."

Clinton has not commented on Stein's effort, and a representative for her did not reply to a request for comment. </s> The recount effort by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in three crucial U.S. states neared an end on Monday, after weeks of legal wrangling yielded only one electoral review in Wisconsin.

A U.S. judge in Pennsylvania rejected Stein’s request for a recount and an examination of that state’s voting machines for evidence of hacking in the Nov. 8 election won by Republican Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin election officials said on Monday they had completed their recount. The full numbers were expected to be available within hours, though it appeared they would largely affirm the election’s results.

Stein, who finished fourth in the election, challenged the results in those two states as well as Michigan, where the state’s top court on Friday denied Stein’s last-ditch appeal to keep a recount going. All of those traditionally Democratic strongholds supported Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Even if all three recounts had taken place, they were always unlikely to change the outcome.

Stein argued that the use in many Pennsylvania districts of electronic voting machines with no paper trail left the system vulnerable to hacking.

In a 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia said it “borders on the irrational” to suspect hacking occurred in Pennsylvania. He also emphasized that the deadline to certify the state’s electoral votes is Tuesday, making it impossible to hold a recount in time.

While there is no evidence of large-scale voting machine hacking, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia targeted Clinton in a series of cyberattacks on Democratic Party groups. Trump has questioned those reports.

In response to Diamond’s ruling, Stein said in a statement that Pennsylvanians’ right to have their votes counted had been “stripped from right under them.”

As of Monday morning, the Wisconsin recount was 95 percent complete and had narrowed Trump’s lead over Clinton by only 25 votes.

Trump won Wisconsin by more than 22,000 votes, Pennsylvania by more than 44,000 votes and Michigan by more than 10,000 votes, according to the latest figures.

Despite winning the national popular vote by more than 2 percent, Clinton would have had to sweep those states to win the presidency under the U.S. Electoral College system, which assigns electoral votes state-by-state rather than by overall national totals. </s> Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein speaks during a news conference outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

(Reuters) - The recount effort by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in three crucial U.S. states came to an end on Monday, after weeks of legal wrangling yielded only one electoral review in Wisconsin.

A U.S. judge in Pennsylvania rejected Stein's request for a recount and an examination of that state's voting machines for evidence of hacking in the Nov. 8 election won by Republican Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin election officials said on Monday they had completed their 10-day recount with only small changes to the vote total.

Stein, who finished fourth in the election, challenged the results in those two states as well as Michigan, where the state's top court on Friday denied Stein's last-ditch appeal to keep a recount going. All of those traditionally Democratic strongholds supported Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Even if all three recounts had taken place, they were always unlikely to change the outcome.

Stein argued that the use in many Pennsylvania districts of electronic voting machines with no paper trail left the system vulnerable to hacking.

In a 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia said it "borders on the irrational" to suspect hacking occurred in Pennsylvania. He also emphasized that the deadline to certify the state's electoral votes is Tuesday, making it impossible to hold a recount in time.

While there is no evidence of large-scale voting machine hacking, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia targeted Clinton in a series of cyber attacks on Democratic Party groups. Trump has questioned those reports.

In response to Diamond's ruling, Stein said in a statement that Pennsylvanians' right to have their votes counted had been "stripped from right under them."

In Wisconsin, Trump’s margin over Clinton increased by 131 votes to 22,748 from 22,617 following the recount, according to the state elections commission.

"Based on the recount, they (voters) can have confidence that Wisconsin’s election results accurately reflect the will of the people, regardless of whether they are counted by hand or by machine," Wisconsin Elections Commission chair Mark Thomsen said in a statement.

Trump won Pennsylvania by more than 44,000 votes and Michigan by more than 10,000 votes, according to the latest figures.

Despite winning the national popular vote by more than 2 percent, Clinton would have had to sweep those states to win the presidency under the U.S. Electoral College system, which assigns electoral votes state-by-state rather than by overall national totals. </s> The decision came on the same day that Wisconsin election officials expect to complete their state's recount, although the results will not change the outcome.

Stein, who finished fourth in the election behind President-elect Donald Trump, had challenged the results in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. All of those traditionally Democratic strongholds supported Trump, a Republican, in the Nov. 8 vote.

The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday denied Stein's last-ditch appeal to secure a recount there.

Even if all three recounts had taken place, it was considered highly unlikely that they would flip the overall result from Trump to Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

Stein had argued that Pennsylvania's use of electronic voting machines with no paper trail in some districts left the system vulnerable to hacking.

In a 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia said there was no evidence suggesting hacking had occurred. He also emphasized that the deadline to certify the state's electoral votes is Tuesday, making it impossible to hold a recount in time.

Diamond said "suspicion of a 'hacked' Pennsylvania election borders on the irrational."

Stein could appeal the court's decision. Her campaign did not immediately comment.

While there is no evidence of large-scale voting machine hacking, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia targeted Clinton in a series of cyberattacks on Democratic Party groups. Trump has questioned those reports.

U.S. presidential elections are determined not by the overall national popular vote but by the Electoral College, which awards votes based on the outcome in each state.

Trump, who won a projected 306 Electoral College votes to Clinton's 232, is set to take office on Jan. 20. Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2.6 million ballots nationwide, according to the latest count.

Stein did not win any electoral college votes.

As of Monday morning, the Wisconsin recount was 95 percent complete and showed Trump with a increase of 628 votes, Clinton with an increase of 653 votes and Stein with an increase of 68 votes.

Trump won Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan by more than 27,000, 68,000 and 11,000 votes, respectively.
The completed recount in Wisconsin verifies Donald Trump as the winner of the state's ten electors.