Milwaukee officials accuse Trump watchers of obstructing recount



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Election oversight officials in Wisconsin’s largest county on Saturday accused observers of President Trump’s ballot compilation of attempting to obstruct the recount.

Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said that in some cases observers objected to nearly all ballots drawn to count, the Associated Press reported.

Christenson said the complaints were delaying the recount and many observers were breaking the rules by interrupting the vote counters with questions or objections. He called the behavior “unacceptable”.

“It’s not our job to train their observers on what they observe,” he said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They clearly don’t know what they are doing, so they keep asking questions. And we said to the Trump campaign, you have to tell your people what you are looking for here because they oppose every poll.

A lawyer speaking on behalf of the Trump campaign has denied any allegations his side acted in bad faith.

“I want to get to the point of composing everything … and not yelling at me,” lawyer Joe Voiland said, according to the AP.

The president’s campaign this week called for recounts in Milwaukee and Dane, Wisconsin’s two largest and most liberal counties, in a bid to defeat the president-elect. Joe bidenJoe Biden Outside groups flood Georgia with ad buys before runoff Biden will receive @POTUS Twitter account on Jan. 20, even if Trump doesn’t concede, company says Trump will attend virtual G-20 summit amid outbreak of coronaviruses PLUSthe victory of the state.

Biden leads Trump with just over 20,600 votes in Wisconsin, one of several states he reversed this year after Trump won it in 2016.

In a separate situation on Saturday, county Election Commissioner Tim Posnanski reported that Trump officials appeared to violate rules that dictate one observer of each campaign per tally table. He said some Trump watchers appeared to be posing as independents, according to the PA.

Election officials also reported that a Trump watcher objected to every ballot tabulators pulled out of a bag because they were bent.

The AP noted that part of the Trump campaign strategy attempted to throw ballots with missing address information on the certification envelope that election secretaries then filled out, although the practice is long accepted in the state.

The outlet also reported that at least one observer from Team Trump was escorted out of the building by sheriff’s deputies on Saturday after pushing an election official who lifted his coat from an observer chair.

Trump’s campaign paid $ 3 million, required by Wisconsin state law, for the partial recount. The recount started on Friday and is due to be completed by December 1.



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