Nov 29, 2016 4 min read

On the small chance there is a Pennsylvania presidential recount, Washington and Greene counties will not be part of it.

“We are done here,” Wes Parry, Washington County’s assistant director of elections, said Tuesday. He could have spoken for Greene, as well.

Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, filed a petition Monday in Commonwealth Court questioning the validity of electronic voting machines used by more than 100 people who signed the petition. Concern that the machines might be vulnerable to hackers is the impetus behind Stein’s attempt to spearhead a recount of ballots in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – key states won by Republican Donald Trump en route to victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8.

Stein raised millions of dollars to support the recounts, and while the chances of Wisconsin and Michigan turning over to Clinton are not likely, they are much better there than in Pennsylvania, where the voting gap between the two top candidates – 71,000, or 1 percent – was larger. The Clinton camp cannot look hopefully at Washington or Greene, where she was roundly defeated. The election boards of both counties certified the votes Tuesday.

The most likely scenario for a recount in Pennsylvania would come from voters. They can request a recount in a given precinct if three from that district sign an affidavit alleging fraud. Monday was the deadline to do so.

Parry said only three affidavits were filed with his office, and two of them bore only two names. “If there aren’t three, it’s not valid,” he said.

The lone affidavit with three names – from North Franklin Township – got a thumbs down from the Washington County Elections Board.

“(The affidavit) was rejected primarily because there was no specific error or fraud attested,” Parry said. “When proof sheets are consistent and there is no specific allegation of fraud or error, there is no call for a recount.

“There was nothing filed with the prothonotary’s office, so as of (Tuesday morning) we are certified.”

Parry added that the county has paper printouts from all voting machines.

Greene likewise certified its voting results Tuesday – in the afternoon, according to Tina Kiger, director of elections.

There is another route to a Keystone State recount, but that one has a “road closed” sign. Pennsylvania’s secretary of state can order a recount if the winner prevails by less than 0.5 percent of the vote. But Trump defeated Clinton by a full percentage point.

Pennsylvania’s top elections official – a Democrat – has essentially found nothing amiss in the election statewide. Secretary of State Pedro Cortes said there was no evidence of cyberattacks or irregularities. He added that a recount would have minimal effect.

“When everything is said and done, you’re going to see that the results are accurate,” Cortes said. “Are they perfect? Did they miss one vote here or there? … To see something systemic that will change the outcome of the election, no, nothing like that I anticipate will come out of the recounts.”

Pennsylvania is considered susceptible to hacking because 96 percent of its voting machines store votes electronically. They can produce a paper record of the overall tally after polls close. But there is no paper trail for individual voters to confirm their choices were recorded accurately in the first place.

Cortes has said Pennsylvania is immune from hacking because its voting machines and tabulating systems aren’t connected to the internet. In other words, a hacker would need to physically access the machines to be able to manipulate the vote.

An attorney for the state Republican Party called Stein’s filing “without any merit whatsoever.”

Staff writer Katie Anderson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.