Obama admin defends vote integrity after hacking fears

The Obama administration has defended the integrity of the presidential election despite fears of Russia attempting to undermine the vote.

A statement of confidence in the election as “free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective” came Friday as some liberal opponents of President-elect Donald Trump pushed for recounts in three states.

In its statement, the administration blasted Russian-directed hacking and release of emails from Democratic groups over the summer, according to The New York Times. 

“Nevertheless, we stand behind our election results, which accurately reflect the will of the American people,” the statement added.

The statement comes as Green Party candidate Jill Stein pushes for a recount in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, traditionally blue states that went for Trump this year.

Pennsylvania had not gone red since 1988, and Wisconsin not since 1984. And the Detroit Free Press reported Friday that Michigan had finally been called for Trump.

Supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have backed the recount push, citing some computer scientists who have suggested paper ballots in the states be manually reviewed amid vote hacking fears.

The administration said it was “confident in the overall integrity of electoral infrastructure” and that the “elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective.”

Still, Stein’s recount efforts resonated with Clinton’s campaign, which announced Saturday that it would participate in the Wisconsin recount. 

In a Medium post, the Clinton campaign’s general counsel Marc Elias said its own analysts had not found evidence of sabotage, but that it planned to join the recount effort in the other two states should Stein follow through.

“While that effort has not, in our view, resulted in evidence of manipulation of results, now that a recount is underway, we believe we have an obligation to the more than 64 million Americans who cast ballots for Hillary Clinton to participate in ongoing proceedings to ensure that an accurate vote count will be reported,” he said.