MADISON, Wis. _ Wisconsin could be at risk of missing a Dec. 13 deadline to certify its 10 electoral votes if municipal clerks can't complete an expected recount by then.
Hitting the deadline could be particularly tricky if Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein is able to force the recount to be conducted by hand, Wisconsin's top election official said.
Stein _ who received just 1 percent of the vote in Wisconsin _ has promised to file for a recount by Friday's 5 p.m. deadline in Wisconsin. She is also planning to ask for recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania, which have deadlines next week.
A federal "safe harbor" law requires presidential recounts to be completed within 35 days of the election. This year, that's Dec. 13.
Stein is making her move for a recount as liberals raised fears about hacked voting machines. Election officials say they are unaware of any problem with Wisconsin's vote tally.
Republican Donald Trump edged out Democrat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, becoming the first GOP presidential candidate to win Wisconsin since 1984. Clinton lost by some 27,000 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.
Wisconsin law allows any candidate to seek a recount. The candidate has to pay if he or she lost by more than 0.25 percent.
Stein's campaign says it has raised $4.8 million this week for its recount efforts and estimates the Wisconsin recount will cost $1.1 million.
The Wisconsin Election Commission has asked municipal clerks to estimate their costs for a recount. A total estimate is expected to be compiled next week because many clerks are out of the office for the Thanksgiving holiday, said Michael Haas, the administrator of the commission.
Wisconsin's last statewide recount was in 2011 for a state Supreme Court seat and the outcome did not change. The recount showed Justice David Prosser defeated challenger JoAnne Klopenburg by 7,004 votes _ a slightly tighter margin than the 7,316-vote victory he had in initial returns.
That recount took more than a month. This one would have to happen more quickly to meet the Dec. 13 deadline.
"You may potentially have the state electoral votes at stake if it doesn't get done by then," Haas said.
A lawyer with Stein's campaign has said she wants the recount done by hand. That would take longer and require a judge's order, Haas said.
"Although we are certain that this is going to create numerous challenges and significant frustration, we thank you for your commitment to election administration in Wisconsin," the election commission's Ross Hein wrote to clerks in a memo.
The push for a recount came as some questioned Trump's wins in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. But election experts noted the voting patterns in those states were similar to the ones in other Midwestern states such as Iowa and Ohio.
George Martin, who sits on the Green Party's coordinating committee, said Stein was seeking the recount because of concerns about differences between the votes and exit polls, as well as worries that there could have been tampering with voting machines.
"We're not saying this is the smoking gun, but there is enough evidence to take a look at our voting system," he said.
An article this week in New York magazine contended Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties with electronic voting compared to those with paper ballots. But the types of voting machines used in Wisconsin vary by municipality, not county.
Touch-screen voting accounts for a small portion of the votes cast in Wisconsin. The machines have a paper trail that can be audited.
In the 2016 April presidential primary, 10.7 percent of the roughly 2.1 million ballots cast were cast on touch-screen machines.
These machines are scattered across roughly 50 of Wisconsin's 72 counties, but they represent only a portion of the vote in each of those counties because voting systems vary by municipalities within counties.
In some smaller counties, touch-screen voting accounts for a majority of the vote, while in others it represents a very small portion of the vote. So any analysis that seeks to tie countywide voting patterns to the voting systems used is problematic because of the lack of uniformity in voting machines within counties.
Touch-screen voting is also disproportionately found in small counties and rural communities, which happen to be the kind of places _ in Wisconsin and elsewhere _ where Democrats saw the biggest erosion of support in this presidential race.
There is hardly any touch-screen voting in the state's most densely populated counties and communities, which are the kinds of places where Democrats suffered less or no erosion of support in this election.
