The Green Party's three-state recount campaign is marching forward, despite a major setback in Pennsylvania.

Jill Stein's team, joined by Hillary Clinton's lawyers, won a partial victory in Wisconsin. A statewide recount will proceed there, but a judge declined Stein's request to do it by hand. The recount is underway and is scheduled to finish Dec. 12, which means there would be a new result by Dec. 13 — the date by which all states must certify results in order to guarantee their electoral votes are counted. A federal court denied a request from Trump supporters to immediately stop the recount, but allowed their lawsuit to go forward.

Stein's having a tougher time in Pennsylvania, where petitions for a recount had to come from voters in each precinct. Voters withdrew a lawsuit asking for a statewide recount due to costs, but the Green Party says it will take the case to federal court. “Pennsylvania has by far the messiest recount process of the three states, and one of the worst state election laws in the nation,” Stein said in an email to supporters.

Michigan is starting its recount. The state's Republican Party has vowed to fight a recount by any means available.

All parties involved acknowledged that the recounts are unlikely to change the result of the election. Clinton won the popular vote by 2.5 million but lost the Electoral College by 74 delegates. All three states' delegates would need to go to Clinton — 20 from Pennsylvania, 16 from Michigan, and 10 from Wisconsin — in order to give her the presidency.

One side effect of this process: We're all learning a lot about how our fragmented democracy works. I just learned that the Electoral College will vote on Dec. 19. That date is likely the hard stop for any vote squabbling, although who can say.