Some states have a rule about automatic recounts, where if the vote totals are within a certain margin, a recount will be triggered without special request by any candidate. Perhaps a certain threshold should also be met for any candidate wanting a recount. Whatever that threshold may be set at, Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, would certainly not have met it. She did not place higher than fourth in any state where she was on the ballot, and received less than 1% of the vote. And yet she is asking for a recount in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and while the outcome of those elections are highly unlikely to change after a recount, she is managing to muck up the election process pretty good. Also, she needs more money:

It seems unreasonable and a waste of time, money and effort to recount millions of votes where there is almost no chance for a candidate like that to win the election. The only chance there would be for something like to happen would be for massive voter fraud or massive error, and either one of those situations would certainly be detected justifying a recount. But in no jurisdiction where Jill Stein is asking for a recount has there been any credible evidence of fraud or error. The threshold to bring a recount in this instance then should be a combination of a prima facie case of fraud or error and a receipt of a certain percentage of votes – perhaps be within a few points of the winner. Or perhaps a sliding scale – the less votes you have, the more proof you need.

Just like the original election, these recount efforts must also be monitored closely. Pro-Trump groups, and Trump himself have now entered into legal action to stop the recounts. Some of the actions will be heard for the first time next week, but one request for injunction has already been denied. The motion to stop the recount In Wisconsin will go forward, as will the counting.

In Michigan, the authorities will consider the request next week.

“Stein, in fact, finished no higher than fourth in any state where she appeared on the ballot. Yet despite being just a blip on the electoral radar, Stein has now commandeered Michigan’s electoral process,” Trump lawyers wrote in their complaint.

“[The law] has never been understood to permit challenges by bottom-dwelling (and thus not aggrieved) candidates like Stein,” they added. The president-elect is represented by heavyweight recount lawyers Gary Gordon and John Pirich, as well as Donald McGahn, the incoming White House Counsel.

These recounts are clearly a front for Hillary Clinton’s machine – she is the only one who could reasonably benefit from it (though even she barely has a chance to change the outcome). The Clinton camp denies all ties to instigating the recount, but they are happy to participate.

This is probably the saddest revelation in this whole election year – that the number of people that run for public office who are thought to have integrity eventually show their true colors, but this is especially sad for Bernie and Stein supporters.

Of all the contenders these two were held up to be above typical politics, but they have proven that they all have a price. Jill Stein received more money for her recount efforts than she raised for her entire campaign (and she’s still going under cover of the slogan “Election Integrity!”), and while Bernie isn’t bothering anyone living it up at his lake house, Stein really is threatening democracy.