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Wisconsin election officials confirmed on Wednesday that they had received a partial payment of $ 3 million from the Trump campaign. Those officials said last week that the price for a statewide recount would be around $ 7.9 million.
“The Wisconsin Election Commission received a bank transfer from the Trump campaign for $ 3 million. No petition has yet been received, but the Trump campaign has told WEC staff that one will be filed today,” said the electoral commission.
The Trump campaign is limiting its demands for a Wisconsin recount to Milwaukee County and Dane County, according to a campaign press release. The money paid by the Trump campaign would be enough to pay for the recounts in those counties, which are Democratic strongholds.
Milwaukee County contains Milwaukee, the largest city in the state and is home to the largest black population in Wisconsin. Biden defeated Trump by 317,251 votes to 134,355 in that county, according to unofficial results from the Wisconsin Election Commission.
Dane County includes the state capital of Madison, home to many college-age voters at the University of Wisconsin. Biden won that county with 260,157 votes to 78,789 votes, according to unofficial results from the Wisconsin Election Commission.
Counties that are recounted will have 13 days to recount all their votes, beginning Thursday, according to procedures announced by the Wisconsin Election Commission. The commission must certify the final results before December 1.
Scott McDonell, the Dane County clerk, said his county would start counting the ballots on Friday and the recount would likely take most of the authorized 13-day period.
“We’ve been anticipating this for several days,” McDonell told reporters on Wednesday. He said his county’s recount was unlikely to lead to significant variations in the votes, “certainly nothing close to what would be needed for a change in the results.”
The recount will be carried out at least in part by means of ballot scanners. Polling officers will be socially left behind and the space will be set up with plexiglass and police security, McDonell said. Observers of the Trump and Biden campaigns will be able to watch the debates and contest the ballots, and the tally will also be streamed live online.
“It was a really clean election from our point of view,” he said.
Experts said it was extremely unlikely that the recounts would move enough votes to reverse Biden’s lead of 20,470 votes. (In 2016, a recount requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein ended up increasing Trump’s margin by just 131 votes.)
Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican and Trump ally, has previously said Trump has a slim chance of winning in a recount, calling Biden’s margin a “big hurdle” to overcome.
Caroline Kenny of CNN contributed to this report.
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