Former Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein’s campaign announced in a Tuesday release that it would donate the remaining funds from recount efforts based on the will of contributors.
The Wisconsin recount ended a day before the Dec. 13 deadline with the Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair officially declaring Republican President-elect Donald Trump the winner in the state. His margin over former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton increased by 131 votes.
The most recent presidential election to incur a significant recount effort was in 2000, when a recount of votes for Democratic candidate Al Gore and Republican candidate George Bush in Florida occurred but was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stein’s two and a half-week fundraising drive drew in approximately $7.33 million from 161,300 donors. The campaign claims this is the largest-ever people-powered effort to verify the results of a presidential election in United States’ history.
“It was an amazing affirmation of the power of the American people to have a voice in their voting system and demand elections with integrity,” Stein said in the release.
The campaign calculated the total cost of the recount efforts to be over $7.4 million, approximately $3.5 million of which paid for Wisconsin state filing fees.
“The total was raised to $9.5 million only after the Wisconsin Elections Commission suddenly and unexpectedly increased the fee for the recount by $2.4 million on November 28,” according to the statement.
The campaign expects some costs to be overestimated and received back funds from the incomplete Michigan recount. Any refunded state filing fees will be donated, according to the release.
David Cobb, Stein’s campaign manager, said in the release the campaign has been “fully transparent” about its recount intentions.
“It’s regrettable that states, especially Wisconsin, dramatically increased the costs of what should have been a routine democratic process,” Cobb said. “But the people of this country were not deterred. And just as we have for decades, the Green Party will continue to be a voice for all Americans – whether on the streets, in the courthouse or at the ballot box.”
