Jill Stein Filed For A Recount In Wisconsin, Where Clinton Lost By 27K Votes

On Friday, Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein officially filed for a recount of the vote tally in Wisconsin, where Donald Trump holds a lead of roughly 27,000 votes over Hillary Clinton, The Guardian reports.

The deadline to file a petition for a recount was 5 pm on Friday, and Stein filed roughly 90 minutes before it closed.

Officials at Wisconsin's Election Commission announced on Twitter they had received Stein's request.

Shortly thereafter, Wisconsin Election Commission director Michael Haas stated,

The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates. 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. We plan to hold a teleconference meeting for county clerks next week and anticipate the recount will begin late in the week after the Stein campaign has paid the recount fee, which we are still calculating.

If you're wondering how and why this is happening, that's a fair question.

Earlier this week, computer scientists said they'd found evidence the election results might've been hacked or manipulated in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- the three states that tipped the electoral college to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

They found that Hillary Clinton got 7 percent fewer votes in Wisconsin counties that utilize electronic-voting machines than in Wisconsin counties that use paper ballots.

So, there is no direct evidence of hacking, but these experts still advised Clinton to call for a recount after analyzing these data.

After suspicions over the results were made public, Jill Stein began raising money to pay for a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, Stein said,

After a divisive and painful presidential race, reported hacks into voter and party databases and individual email accounts are causing many American to wonder if our election results are reliable. These concerns need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified. We deserve elections we can trust.

The Green Party candidate raised more than $5 million so far to pay for the recounts.

Officials said the cost of the recount in Wisconsin will cost $1 million, and Stein will have to pay the entire cost.

The deadlines to file for recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan are next week.

Technically, Hillary Clinton could still win the election -- this was true even before Stein filed for a recount in Wisconsin (because of the electoral college).

But it's still a long-shot.

Still, it's pretty safe to say this recount adds even more drama to an already tumultuous election cycle.

If nothing else, 2016 has never failed to be exciting.