Hillary Clinton Campaigns Across US One Day Ahead Of Presidential Election

Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign rally at North Carolina State University on Nov. 8, 2016 in Raleigh North Carolina.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Three computer scientists are asking the Hillary Clinton campaign to ask for a recount in three states Donald Trump won, which may change the outcome of this year's presidential election.

They believe that voting machines in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked, a claim the scientists presented to the Clinton campaign on Nov. 17. If the results in those states flipped to the Democratic nominee, she would have collected 278 electoral votes -- 18 more than Trump and enough to secure the presidency.

University of Michigan computer science professor Alex Halderman told the Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal blog that voting machines, which aren't connected to the internet, could have been attacked via memory cards that store ballot information.

"This is more complicated than attacking an online voting system that is directly connected to the internet," he told CIR's Byard Duncan. "But it's within the capabilities of nation-state attackers, and it would not require a large conspiracy."

Some of the evidence Halderman and the other computer scientists cite is that Clinton won the vote in precincts that relied on paper ballots by substantial margins. That she didn't fare as well in places that relied on machines has led to their skepticism, which has been called into question by Nate Silver and other forecasters.

Calling for a recount in those three states is just the latest effort to deny Trump the keys to the White House.

Petitions pleading with the Electoral College to vote Clinton in have been prominent in the days after the election, many of them on the basis that the Democratic nominee has so far collected 1.5 million more total votes than Trump. (And that number is expected to exceed 2 million when it's all said and done.)

Neither Clinton nor her campaign have spoken publicly about the request. Even if they're considering it, time's running short.

The deadline to request a recount in Wisconsin is Friday. In Pennsylvania it's Nov. 28. And in Michigan it's Nov. 30.

--Eder Campuzano

503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com