Green Party [party website] presidential nominee Jill Stein said Sunday that she and her campaign intend to “escalate” her recount efforts in Pennsylvania by bringing a lawsuit in federal court. Stein had filed suit in the state court, but the Pennsylvania case law requires voters seeking a recount to pay a $1 million bond. Stein and her campaign intend to file the suit [CNN report] on Monday, saying “the judge’s outrageous demand that voters pay such an exorbitant figure is a shameful, unacceptable barrier to democratic participation.” The third-party candidate was also emphatic that the recount was necessary because elected leaders have not ensured “an election that we can trust, and that is accurate, that is secure against hacking, against human error, against machine error, and in which the votes are being counted.” Stein has raised more than $6.5 million for the recount and some believe Stein is using recount donations as a fundraising scheme for future elections, though Stein denied these allegations.

Led by its presidential nominee Stein, the Green Party filed suits for recounts in several states late last month. Last week President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters filed legal challenges [JURIST report] to recounts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Earlier last week a federal judge ruled [JURIST report] that the Wisconsin recount could go forward but denied a motion that the recounts be done by hand. The Wisconsin recount began [JS report] Thursday, with other recounts [JURIST report] set to begin soon. The Hillary Clinton campaign has come out in favor [JURIST report] of the recount efforts, but has thus far provided only minimal assistance to the cause. The recount motions come as an inversion of the pre-election status quo where Trump campaigned on the charge of a rigged vote and refused to commit [WP report] to the election results before he saw them.