Liberals searching for answers to Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the presidential election have latched on to a new explanation: Hillary Clinton didn’t really lose.
A growing “audit the vote” movement, which has garnered high-profile backers like “Avengers” director Joss Whedon and actress Debra Messing, argue election tampering or incompetence may have led to Trump being declared the winner.
They are demanding that the Department of Justice and election officials check voting machines and vote totals to make sure the results in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are accurate.
Trump has been declared the winner in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and has a lead in Michigan, where some media groups have declared him the winner.
If the results in all three states were for the Democrat, Clinton, who has a lead in the popular vote of nearly 2 million over Trump, would also have the Electoral College lead.
“Demand an audit. Make the call,” Whedon wrote in a tweet to his 107,000 followers on Tuesday that included a photo of Clinton overlaid with the message: “SHE WON.”
The idea that widespread election tampering decided the election, with evidence of enough uncounted votes that the results could be overturned, would appear to be far-fetched.
Trump’s transition is in full effect, and Clinton conceded the results in the early hours of Nov. 9. No major Democratic officeholders appear to be backing the social media calls for an audit.
Clinton is behind in the state of Pennsylvania by 68,000 votes and in Wisconsin by about 27,000 votes.
Many of those calling for an audit have focused on the idea that the Russian government may have manipulated the outcome. Russia was implicated in data breaches of a number of Democratic institutions and hacking the email account of Clinton’s campaign manager.