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Hillary Clinton is being urged to demand a recount of the US presidential election result amid concerns that votes in three key swing states won by Donald Trump may have been manipulated or hacked.

The sensational challenge to a Trump presidency is being pushed by a prominent group of election lawyers and computer scientists.

According to New York magazine, the group lobbied Mrs Clinton’s top campaign lieutenants in a call last week to quiz the vote counts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

It is a race against time because of looming cut-offs for recounts, but the experts believe they have uncovered persuasive evidence that may turn the entire election result on its head.

Their findings showed that in Wisconsin, Mrs Clinton received seven per cent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots.

Based on this analysis, says the magazine, the former First Lady may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes in a state she lost by 27,000 to Mr Trump.

The maths remain tight but the academics argue a recount could result in Mrs Clinton overturning the billionaire former reality show star’s winning 290 to 232 Electoral College votes victory.

She would need to win a recount in Pennsylvania, which Mr Trump took by a narrow 68,000 margin to claim the state’s 20 Electoral College votes. She would also require Michigan’s 16 Electoral College votes that have still not been apportioned because the result was too close to call.

Combined with the 10 Electoral College votes if the result in Wisconsin was reversed, Mrs Clinton would be back in the White House and her Republican rival would be back living full time in Trump Tower.

In addition, at least six “faithless” Electoral College voters have said they will not place their votes for Mr Trump even though he prevailed in their states.

Any recount would involve a time-consuming forensic audit of voting machines in the states where the results were questioned.

The lobbying group, which includes voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Centre for Computer Security and Society, has not found proof of impropriety but claims the suspicious pattern is reason enough to warrant an independent review of the results in the three crucial states.

A recount is all the more desirable, says the magazine, in light of the Obama administration’s allegation that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee in a bid to help the Trump campaign.

However, Mr Obama and his senior team are said to be focused on a smooth transition of power to Mr Trump and oppose any challenge to the election result.

Mrs Clinton has not commented on the proposal. The group reportedly made their case for a recount to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias and New York magazine said “some Clinton allies are intent on pushing the issue”.

Clinton supporters point to the fact that the losing Democrat candidate is 1.7 million votes ahead of Mr Trump in the nationwide popular vote as a reason for forcing through a recount to try and turn around the all-important Electoral College tally.

But they do not have much time. The deadline in Wisconsin to file for a recount is Friday; in Pennsylvania, it’s Monday; and Michigan is next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump continues to audition an array of contenders for his Cabinet posts. The latest to emerge as a possible appointee was General David Petraeus, one of America’s most prominent military chiefs.

General Petraeus, who was forced to quit as CIA director in 2012 following an extramarital fling with his biographer, has been linked with the Secretary of State job. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he would be willing to serve in a Trump administration.

While Mrs Clinton ponders on a possible challenge to Mr Trump’s election triumph, the President-elect has apparently decided not to pursue his campaign pledge to launch a criminal probe into her use of a private email server while working in the State Department.

“I think Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don’t find her to be honest or trustworthy,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said. “But if Donald Trump can help her heal then, perhaps, that’s a good thing.”