Pennsylvania Recount Update: Russian Vote Hacking Accusation Is 'Rank Speculation,' AG Writes To Federal Court

Voter officials in Pennsylvania tried to derail Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein’s vote recount efforts for the presidential election in the Keystone State Thursday. They asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit from Stein’s party to force a count of paper ballots cast on Election Day and force an inspection of election software for signs of tampering.

The state attorney general’s office characterized the recount effort as an attempt to undermine the election of Donald Trump, who won the state in a surprising upset against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Lawyers filing in relation to the case argued that Stein had no standing to bring a lawsuit for a recount to the courts. Stein's results were so low in the state and elsewhere that there is virtually no chance that a recount would change them. The lawyers also said suspicions that Russia had cyber-attacked American electoral processes and influenced the results were “rank speculation,” the Allentown Morning Call reported. It is possible that no such tampering even exists, according to Stein’s challenge.

“In other words, the plaintiffs want to audit machines, even though they concede that there may be no evidence of anything when they look," Attorney General Bruce Beemer, wrote in his office’s filing. "This is the epitome of a fishing expedition and cannot be sanctioned in the context of a presidential election and a last-minute attempt to derail Pennsylvania's election results."

Stein has been attempting to push recounts in three states that were crucial to Trump’s win: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. She has faced resistance in her efforts and a federal judge halted the Michigan recount Wednesday saying that Stein had no standing for the lawsuit. Efforts in Wisconsin to stop the ongoing recount were rejected by a federal judge, who said that recounts are a necessary component of ensuring that American elections have integrity.