No conspiracy theory here: Call for Clinton to contest election results comes from real-life scientists

Brett T. | 6:45 PM on November 23, 2016

As Twitchy reported Tuesday night, Paul Krugman and others were buzzing over a piece in New York magazine about a group of computer scientists and lawyers urging Hillary Clinton to contest the election results in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

The vote in those close contests showed signs of hacking, they claim. That theory was pretty quickly debunked, though. “It’s hard to stress how weak this is,” wrote the New York Times’ Nick Cohn after a quick review of the data.

Still, the prediction was that the article would blossom online into a widespread call for a recount, and it didn’t take long for that prediction to come true. CNN ran a segment during “The Lead” Wednesday afternoon.

Computer scientists believe votes in 3 states could have been manipulated or hacked, urge #Clinton to recount votes https://t.co/wEvtJDHSIH pic.twitter.com/rouZNJ1OzF

— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) November 23, 2016

Computer scientists to Clinton camp: ask for a recount https://t.co/rlf6kQno3b @TomForeman reports #TheLead

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) November 23, 2016

.@tomforemancnn calls scientists urge for Clinton to contest results "a conspiracy theory for disgruntled Democrats" https://t.co/Fw6XskhGYn

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) November 23, 2016

What? Disgruntled Democrats? What’s he talking about? These are computer scientists, not conspiracy theorists. Oh, and lawyers. Scientists and voting rights lawyers.

The tenor of the reporting is fairly skeptical but this chyron is so irresponsible pic.twitter.com/oXugda3rip

— John Tabin (@johntabin) November 23, 2016