Philadelphias voluntary recount can trigger automatic Pennsylvania statewide recount

Even as third party candidate Jill Stein continues to mount a legal battle to force a statewide recount in Pennsylvania, the voting totals in the state have been wildly fluctuating since election day. Pennsylvania first claimed that Donald Trump had won the state by more than seventy thousand votes, but has now reduced that total to fewer than fifty thousand. As such, Philadelphia is now engaging in a voluntary recount. And under state law, if the results in Philadelphia shift by a certain margin, it will trigger an automatic statewide recount.

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Ahead of the Philly recount, the statewide vote totals have been shifted as various precincts have found more votes they missed the first time, or corrected errors, such that Donald Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania is now around 0.8%.

Under state law, if that drops to 0.5%, Pennsylvania will be legally required to hold an automatic statewide recount. Officials in the state would not be able to stop it from happening, even if they opposed it. Nor would Donald Trump be able to stop the recount by going to court