Here’s something nice: in Hillary Clinton’s hometown, residents are going out of their way to support her. Hillary and Bill Clinton have been seen out and about in Chappaqua, and apparently wherever they go, they get hugs and well-wishes. People have been putting signs out on their front yards reading “We Love You Hillary.” The local Chappaqua Farmers Market “made a 50-pound basket of locally-sourced goodies for Hillary: chicken pot pies, carrots, meats, cheeses, vegetables and yoghurt.” People have been dropping off flowers, cards and letters for Hillary too. At the local bank, Bill Clinton was holding court with some well-wishers, telling them that he feels that Hillary “completely got railroaded by Comey” and that Bill wish he “didn’t know Hillary so he could really go to town on the people persecuting her so he could really speak his mind. He felt he was held back because he couldn’t defend her the way he wanted to defend her.”

Meanwhile, New York Magazine dropped this report yesterday and it’s one of the biggest-trending stories of today. There’s a voting-rights group which thinks that the vote was hacked in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Hillary Clinton is being urged by a group of prominent computer scientists and election lawyers to call for a recount in three swing states won by Donald Trump, New York has learned. The group, which includes voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, believes they’ve found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked. The group is so far not speaking on the record about their findings and is focused on lobbying the Clinton team in private.

Last Thursday, the activists held a conference call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias to make their case, according to a source briefed on the call. The academics presented findings showing that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots. Based on this statistical analysis, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes; she lost Wisconsin by 27,000. While it’s important to note the group has not found proof of hacking or manipulation, they are arguing to the campaign that the suspicious pattern merits an independent review — especially in light of the fact that the Obama White House has accused the Russian government of hacking the Democratic National Committee.

According to current tallies, Trump has won 290 Electoral College votes to Clinton’s 232, with Michigan’s 16 votes not apportioned because the race there is still too close to call. It would take overturning the results in both Wisconsin (10 Electoral College votes) and Pennsylvania (20 votes), in addition to winning Michigan’s 16, for Clinton to win the Electoral College. There is also the complicating factor of “faithless electors,” or members of the Electoral College who do not vote according to the popular vote in their states. At least six electoral voters have said they would not vote for Trump, despite the fact that he won their states.

The Clinton camp is running out of time to challenge the election. According to one of the activists, the deadline in Wisconsin to file for a recount is Friday; in Pennsylvania, it’s Monday; and Michigan is next Wednesday. Whether Clinton will call for a recount remains unclear. The academics so far have only a circumstantial case that would require not just a recount but a forensic audit of voting machines. Also complicating matters, a senior Clinton adviser said, is that the White House, focused on a smooth transfer of power, does not want Clinton to challenge the election result. Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri did not respond to a request for comment. But some Clinton allies are intent on pushing the issue. This afternoon, Huma Abedin’s sister Heba encouraged her Facebook followers to lobby the Justice Department to audit the 2016 vote. “Call the DOJ…and tell them you want the votes audited,” she wrote. “Even if it’s busy, keep calling.”

[From New York Magazine]

I think this will probably end up like the Al Gore situation, which is that Hillary and her people will put the appearance of democracy ahead of a long, drawn-out legal fight. Years later, we still know that there were thousands of votes not “counted” in Florida in the 2000 election. And maybe when everything is investigated about the 2016 election, we’ll find that our democracy was hacked. Personally, I don’t think it would hurt if Pres. Obama – rather than Hillary – asked for an independent audit of the election, but I also think the Clinton camp wants to avoid the appearance of being seen as “clutching at straws.”

Photos courtesy of WENN.