Erstellt am: 23. 11. 2016 - 14:33 Uhr
Should Clinton challenge the US election result?
Computer scientists in the United States say they have found evidence which indicates that election results in some places might have been manipulated, most importantly in the key states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
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The suggestion is that automatic voting machines may have been hacked, and Hillary Clinton's team is being urged to challenge the election results.
AFP/ Yuri Gripas
Steve Crilley asked US political analyst James Boys whether he thinks these claims could have any foundation:
Obviously, we’re moving into the realm of wild speculation, but when you look at the degree to which Hillary Clinton lost these states, by such a slender margin, it certainly does, I think, raise a whole series of questions about the veracity of the result. Certainly, many of us on election night looked at these results and thought it was somewhat remarkable, so if there was, indeed, evidence that there was some sort of “third party involvement”, putting it politely, I don’t think it would come as a great surprise. At this point, moving forward and challenging it would be difficult, and I think certainly disruptive.
OK, do the lawyers step in? Is it more about politics, or is it more about the legal framework for finalising an election, do you think?
Well, unfortunately, the two things can’t be divorced, because whilst the legal team might well say, “Yes, you have a legal option, here” , there needs to be a political way into this, and if Hillary Clinton were to demand a recount at this point, which she has said in the past she would not, then that would certainly throw a spanner in the works with regard to the transition to a new administration. Now, if there is clear evidence emerging that there has been tampering by a third party, then that’s one thing, but if this is just speculation at this point, it’s going to be very, very difficult to politically move forwards with this.
AFP / Jewel Samad
There is also the idea, I think, that if that were to happen, you can imagine the scenes across the US, rightly or wrongly, and this certainly isn’t a reason for not moving forward, but if Donald Trump were to have the presidency denied to him at this point, having had it called for him. This is someone who, throughout the campaign made repeated references to a rigged system suggesting he thought all along he would be denied the presidency. Now, in my opinion he was setting himself up for a failure at the polls, but if at this point it was suddenly taken away from him and miraculously given to Hillary Clinton, then I think his supporters would feel he had been vindicated, and heaven knows what their reaction would be.
What do you think would happen if it was established that there had been hacking in these three particular states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan?
Well, if that were to be the case, you’d have to look at the overall election result and ascertain whether the results there would have given the election to Hillary Clinton, which is a distinct possibility, I would have thought. When you consider the implications of this, the idea that a US Presidential election has been hacked by an outside source, it would be one of the most remarkable things to have happened in US history. I think, irrespective of whether this is demonstrated to have occurred or not, it’s long past time for the American political system and its voting system to be given a huge overhaul. You’ve effectively got the world’s 21st century superpower electing its leaders on 17th century election laws and processes. You would never expect the entire European continent to vote, and to be able to tally its election results within the space of a couple of hours. Logic would say you need to move to weekend voting, and basically make sure that all the voted are counted [before declaring it], because Hillary Clinton conceded on election night long before most of the votes had even been counted. Indeed, we are still counting, and now her popular vote tally has climbed north of 1.7 million votes ahead of Donald Trump.
The system is all about the Electoral College, and what we hear now is that there are going to be some rebel presidential electors who are planning to block Donald Trump.
Well, it’s important to remember that people do not vote directly for the president, they vote for electors to an electoral college on a state by state basis. When the electors meet in December to officially certify the result, there have been people who have been designated to go forward who have suggested they won’t go forward on that basis. One thing that’s worth contemplating, however, is that if between now and the meeting of the Electoral College it was demonstrated that there was indeed shenanigans going on in those three key states, one wonders whether it might not be in the remit of the Electoral College to render a different verdict, and go with the popular vote. That, I think, is Hillary Clinton’s last best grasp at this. If there was to be any movement, however, it could be that it would end with the House of Representatives deciding. That, of course, is held by the Republican Party, and so you would imagine they would simply appoint Donald Trump to be President.
AFP / Jason Redmond