Pennsylvania’s largest two counties completed their presidential vote recounts Monday and Hillary Clinton only picked up five votes.
According to an election official in Philadelphia County, the largest county in the state, Clinton netted five votes after its final computations. Another official from the board of elections in the second largest county — Allegheny, where the city of Pittsburgh is located — told The Daily Caller that no numbers changed after their second recount was completed.
An official from the board of elections in Lehigh County, which also submitted its recount numbers Monday, said their numbers did not change from their previous recount either.
The recount in Pennsylvania is a result of Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s call for recounts in three key rust belt states, where Donald Trump narrowly beat Clinton. The other two states are Wisconsin and Michigan. All three states would need to be overturned to Clinton’s favor, which total 46 electoral votes, in order for her to win the presidential election. The chances of this happening, however, are slim.
According to a Pennsylvania source familiar with the recount, the recent numbers reportedly showing Trump’s lead shrinking by thousands of votes should be taken with a grain of salt — as well as dismissing the idea of an “automatic recount” being triggered if Clinton’s margin is within 0.5 percent of Trump.
“There are 67 counties who have been doing their canvassing and their official computation of turning in numbers and they’re not all done yet and that number could go up and down between now and the final certification. Some counties have finished their[counts]. Let’s say they didn’t count all their absentee ballots on election night. None of those are recount number changes,” said the source.
“There’s been only 350 precincts counted out of a state of 9100. People out there are trying to use those phony numbers to simply try to gather support for baseless claims they’re fighting,” he said.
Additionally, he noted that the deadline for an automatic recount had already passed.
“There is no longer any possibility under the law for an automatic recount. So getting into Jill Stein’s and other’s comments if they could get it down below .5 percent — the deadline — the drop dead deadline for an automatic recount has passed. So it doesn’t matter.”
*This piece has been updated