Workers count Milwaukee County ballots on election day at Central Count in Milwaukee. Photo / AP file
United States President Donald Trump filed today for a recount of Wisconsin's two most Democratic counties, paying the required $3 million ($4.3m) cost.
He alleges that they were the sites of the "worst irregularities" although no evidence of illegal activity has been presented.
The recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties could begin as soon as tomorrow and must be done by December 1.
Democrat Joe Biden received 577,455 votes in those two counties compared with 213,157 for Trump. Biden won statewide by 20,608 votes, based on canvassed results submitted by the counties.
"The official canvass results reaffirmed Joe Biden's clear and resounding win in Wisconsin after Wisconsin voters turned out to cast their ballots in record numbers," said Biden campaign spokesman Nate Evans. "A cherry-picked and selective recounting of Milwaukee and Dane County will not change these results."
Biden campaign reacts to Trump campaign seeking a partial recount in Wisconsin, argues it won't change the results https://t.co/WPMNUOw3Jo
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 18, 2020
Milwaukee County is the state's largest, home to the city of Milwaukee, and black people make up about 27 per cent of the population, more than any other county. Dane County is home to the liberal capital city of Madison and the flagship University of Wisconsin campus.
"The people of Wisconsin deserve to know whether their election processes worked in a legal and transparent way," said Wisconsin lawyer Jim Troupis, who is working with the Trump campaign.
"Regrettably, the integrity of the election results cannot be trusted without a recount in these two counties and uniform enforcement of Wisconsin absentee ballot requirements. We will not know the true results of the election until only the legal ballots cast are counted."
"It was a wipeout. In my area, West Virginia, Ohio, a lot of these states down-ballot, we got wiped out," Congressman Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, told @ABC News. "Joe Biden has a much better brand than the Democratic Party brand." https://t.co/eZacNBTHYP
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 18, 2020
Dean Knudson, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said Trump raised "significant legal questions that have never been adjudicated in Wisconsin."
But a fellow commission member, Democrat Mark Thomsen, said Trump was trying to change the rules of the election after he lost, but only in two counties.
"That's like losing the Super Bowl and then saying 'I want a review of a certain play using different rules than what applied to the rest of the game,'" Thomsen said. "That is the essence of hypocrisy and cheating and dishonesty."
More than two weeks since the election, Pres. Trump remains dug in at the White House, refusing to concede and to help his successor deal with critical and urgent issues: the pandemic and national security. https://t.co/0OPQcbOmhV
— ABC News (@ABC) November 18, 2020
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, rejected the Trump campaign's assertion that there were any problems in the two counties.
"This is an attack on cities, on minorities, on places that have historically voted Democratic," Barrett said. "Don't let anyone fool you that this is about irregularities."
Trump's campaign said that clerks wrongly added missing information on returned absentee ballots.
But guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, in place since 2016, says that clerks can fix missing witness address components on the envelopes that contain absentee ballots if they have reliable information. That guidance, passed unanimously by the bipartisan elections commission, has been in place for 11 statewide elections without objection.
.@JoeBiden now leads #Trump by almost 6 million votes (5.78 mil), and almost 4% (3.8%). The popular vote margin compares to Obama's 2012 win over Romney (3.9%); it's considerably greater than Bush over Kerry 2004 (2.4%). Historically, this was not a particularly close election.
— Michael Medved (@MedvedSHOW) November 18, 2020
The elections commission said that there were no corrections to actual absentee ballots contained inside the envelopes as some have claimed. The witness signature and address information is all contained on the envelope in which the ballot is sent.
The Trump campaign is also alleging that voters got around Wisconsin's photo ID requirement by claiming they were indefinitely confined and therefore didn't have to present a photo ID in order to return their absentee ballot.
Wisconsin law requires all voters to show an acceptable photo ID to vote both in person and by mail. It does provide exceptions for citizens who are indefinitely confined because of age, physical illness or infirmity or are disabled for an indefinite period.
This recount is another unfounded attempt by Republicans to discredit the legitimacy of Biden’s win — and has no serious chance of reversing the outcome. https://t.co/NoX9lY7Wbj https://t.co/mt5jpAU9A8
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) November 18, 2020
The Wisconsin Republican Party sued Democratic Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell over the advice he had posted on his Facebook page. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered McDonell to stop issuing guidance that is different from official language approved by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The Trump campaign also alleges that local election clerks issued absentee ballots to voters without requiring an application, in violation of state law. No evidence of wrongdoing related to absentee ballot applications has been made.
Republicans had raised concerns about events held over two weekends at Madison parks where poll workers accepted completed absentee ballots from people. But no ballots were handed out at that event, only those previously requested were accepted and there were no legal challenges filed.
Analysis: If Trump’s main goal was to convince his base Biden didn’t win fairly, he can rest assured that he was successful https://t.co/tGWKveQpJe
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 18, 2020
Elections commission members Knudson and Thomsen both said they did not know what Trump was referring to in that complaint.
"This was news to me that that's been happening," said Knudson, a Republican.
Thomsen, a Democratic member, said the claim was "not true."
"Everyone knows you can't get an absentee ballot unless you request it," Thomsen said.
The goal is to start the recount in Dane County, at a Madison convention centre, on Saturday and livestream it, McDonell said. The recount will be done 16 hours a day and will likely take the entire 13 days allotted to complete. Milwaukee County officials planned an update on their plans for later today.
New Vox and Data for Progress poll: 73 percent of Republican voters are questioning Biden’s victory https://t.co/FQlId7QuKn
— Vox (@voxdotcom) November 18, 2020
"We know the result will be the same as it was," McDonell said. "It's what we saw across the state four years ago and this election, from my perspective, ran very smoothly."
Recounts in Wisconsin and across the country have historically resulted in very few vote changes. A 2016 presidential recount in Wisconsin netted Trump an additional 131 votes.
Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes that year and opposed the recount brought by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
"The people have spoken and the election is over," Trump said at the time. "We must accept this result and then look to the future."
- AP
The plaster, from a high-status building, was discovered in Southwark in 2021.