Walker signs bill tightening election recount requirements

MADISON, Wis. – Gov. Scott Walker has just made it harder to ask for an election recount in Wisconsin.

Walker on Thursday signed into law a bill introduced in reaction to Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s 2016 recount request in Wisconsin after she finished a distant fourth.

Under the new law, only candidates who trail the winner by 1 percentage point or less in statewide elections could seek a recount. If that had been in effect last year, Democrat Hillary Clinton could have requested a recount since she finished within that margin. But Stein would have been barred.

Democrats argued against the change, saying if candidates want to pay for a recount they should be allowed to pursue it. Stein paid for the Wisconsin recount.