Before recount, Hillary Clinton has already caught up by 26,317 votes in Pennsylvania

| 8:40 pm EST December 6, 2016
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Pennsylvania hasn’t even done a statewide recount yet, and its vote totals are already shifting heavily in Hillary Clinton’s favor. Last week we reported that based on the revised numbers coming in from various Pennsylvania precincts, Donald Trump’s lead in the state had dropped from its original day-after-election total of 70,638 votes down to just 46,938 votes. And now it’s dropped even further.

As we’ve been documenting all along, it’s easy to follow to shift in numbers here. USA Today reported the original number last month, and the respected Decision Desk HQ subsequently reported the revised number on December 1st. And now that number has shifted again.

Decision Desk HQ now officially lists Donald Trump as having 2,970,796 votes in Pennsylvania, and Hillary Clinton as having 2,926,475 votes in the state. That’s now a margin of just 44,321 votes statewide, down from 46,938 five days ago, and down from 70,638 in November. These numbers are easily verified by clicking on the above blue bold-text source links, which lead to USA Today and Decision Desk HQ, as well as our own previous reporting.

Again, this is not a result of the statewide Pennsylvania recount that third party candidate Jill Stein has been fighting for in federal court. That recount hasn’t happened yet. These shifts are simply from precincts and counties voluntarily cleaning up their original vote totals, which in hindsight were wildly inaccurate. It means that Trump’s lead has already shrunk by 26,317 votes, or 37.5% of his original supposed lead in the state, based on voluntary local revisions alone. Considering the wild shifts in these totals, it makes the argument for a statewide Pennsylvania recount all the more strong.

In addition to suing Pennsylvania in federal court to try to get a judge to sign off on a statewide recount, she’s also looking to work with various precincts and counties in the state on voluntary recounts which might shrink Donald Trump’s lead even further. If his lead inches below 0.5%, it will trigger an automatic statewide recount under existing state law. These revisions have now shrunk his statewide lead from its original 1.2% down to 0.8% and now down to just over 0.7%, suggesting it may indeed drop to the requisite 0.5%.