President Trump has repeatedly claimed that voter fraud and ballot irregularities cost him the 2020 presidential election.
But a recount in a key county in Wisconsin, a battleground state Joe Biden won by about 20,000 votes, found that the Democrat actually got more votes than originally reported.
Out of about 460,000 ballots cast in Milwaukee County, Biden picked up an additional 132 votes. Before the recount, Biden had 317,270 votes in to Trump’s 134,357. After the recount, it was 317,527 for Biden and 134,482 for Trump, which meant Biden gained 257 votes and Trump added 125.
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson, a Democrat, said the recount showed that elections in the county are fair, transparent, accurate and secure.
“I promised that this would be a transparent and fair process, and it was,” Christenson said. “There was an examination of every ballot by election workers, a meticulous recounting of every ballot that was properly cast, a transparent process that allowed the public to observe, a fair process that allows the aggrieved candidate who sought the recount an opportunity to observe and object to ballots they believe should not be counted.”
Rick Baas, the only Republican on the three-member Board of Canvassers, said he thinks the Trump campaign “is looking forward to its day in court.”
“It is important for people to understand how their government works,” Baas said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “A recount is just that: a recount. Now, there’s evidence that will be taken to another level and it will be reviewed there, but this body has conducted itself in a manner that is exemplary. We were not the rest of the country. We did not have yelling, screaming, shouting. We had counsel that could make an articulate argument. We’ve done the best we can do given the circumstances that we’re under.”
On Nov. 19, the Trump campaign requested a recount in two Wisconsin counties.
“Our democracy depends on fair and impartial elections that fully adhere to the Constitution and state statute,” Jim Troupis, Wisconsin counsel to the Trump campaign, said in a statement. “We continue to be confident that when all of the legal ballots are counted and illegal ballots are not counted, President Trump will be proven the winner,” Troupis said.
Trump’s reelection campaign requested recounts in areas where, they claim, there were “illegally altered absentee ballots, illegally issued absentee ballots, and “illegal advice given by government officials allowing Wisconsin’s Voter ID laws to be circumvented.” The two counties — Milwaukee and Dane — were chosen because they are the sites with “the worst irregularities,” the campaign said, adding that they have transferred $3 million to Wisconsin to cover the cost of the recounts.
Trump continues to insist that he won the state. “Look at what’s going on in Wisconsin. Wisconsin, they’re finding tremendous discrepancy. You just take a look at that. Tremendous discrepancy,” the president said on Thanksgiving.
“In Wisconsin, you all said I was going to lose — or the polls said — certain polls: Washington Post, ABC — said I was going to lose by 17 points. Think of how dishonest. I thought I was going to win it. And essentially, I did win it. It’s very, very close. It’s very, very close.”
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