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The Trump campaign on Wednesday called for a partial recount in Wisconsin, claiming that illegally altered mail-in ballots and illegal advice given by government officials helped bypass Wisconsin’s voter identification laws.
Campaign spends $ 3 million on petition for recount in Milwaukee and Dane counties, claiming the Wisconsin Election Commission ordered Wisconsin city clerks to “illegally alter incomplete absentee ballots, contrary to the law of Wisconsin ”. In a new statement, the Trump campaign also said that clerks were instructed to “rely on their own ‘personal knowledge’ or” unspecified lists or databases at their disposal “to add missing information about returned absent ballots.
UPDATING THE GEORGIA ACCOUNT
Under Wisconsin law, incomplete absent ballots cannot be counted.
The Trump campaign said on Wednesday that clerks had issued mail-in ballots to voters in Wisconsin without requiring a request, which they said is “in direct conflict with Wisconsin’s mail-voting guarantees.”
The campaign said the ballots were cast during the two-week in-person absentee voting period, which ran from October 20 to November 1.
“The people of Wisconsin deserve to know if their electoral processes worked in a legal and transparent manner. Unfortunately, the integrity of the election results cannot be reliable without a recount in these two counties and a consistent application of Wisconsin’s absent ballot requirements. We won’t know the real election results until only the legal ballots cast are counted, ”Trump campaign lawyer Jim Troupis said in a statement.
He added: “We will not stop fighting for transparency and integrity in our electoral process to ensure that all Americans can have confidence in the results of a free and fair election in Wisconsin and across the country. . “
Trump’s campaign said clerks wrongly added missing information on returned absent ballots.
But guidelines from the Wisconsin Election Commission, in place since 2016, say clerks can fix missing witness address elements on envelopes containing mail ballots if they have reliable information. This direction, adopted unanimously by the bipartisan electoral commission, was put in place for 11 statewide elections without objection.
The election commission said no corrections were made to the missing ballots contained in the envelopes, as some claimed. The witness’s signature and address are all on the envelope in which the ballot is sent.
The Trump campaign said it moved $ 3 million to Wisconsin on Wednesday to cover the estimated cost of the recounts. The Wisconsin Election Commission has confirmed that it 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.
According to the Fox News ruling office, President-elect Joe Biden holds 49.6% of the vote in Wisconsin, or 1.63 million votes, compared to President Trump’s 48.9%, or 1.61 million votes.
“The official poll results reaffirmed Joe Biden’s clear and resounding victory in Wisconsin after Wisconsin voters turned out to vote in record numbers,” Biden Wisconsin communications director Nate Evans said, in a press release Wednesday. “A selective and selective recount of Milwaukee and Dane County will not change these results.”
Evans added: “Election officials have worked extremely hard under unprecedented circumstances to ensure that all votes were counted quickly and accurately, and the recount demanded and paid for by the Trump campaign will once again confirm the victory of Joe Biden. ”
Wisconsin election officials said no irregularities or widespread problems were reported.
Recounts are not automatic under Wisconsin law. But any losing candidate who is within one point of the winner can claim one. Trump lost about six tenths of a point, based on unofficial results. Candidates must pay the recounts if they are more than 0.25 point behind the winner.
As of noon Monday, 68 of 72 counties had completed certification of the vote. Those results, which include provisional ballots that were counted after election day, show Biden garnered 122 votes and Trump has won 107 statewide so far. The net gain was 15 for Biden.
The intention to petition for a recount in Wisconsin counties comes amid a recount in Georgia. More than 3,000 uncounted ballots have turned up in Georgia as the state audits the 2020 presidential election.
GEORGIA INVESTIGATION OF VOTE COUNTING DELAYED BY FLOOD IN DEMOCRATIC COUNTY
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in several battlefield states where Biden was ruled by a razor thin margin, including Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The campaign claimed cases of illegally counted votes after election day and that poll observers were prevented from observing the tally.
President Trump announced over the weekend that his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, “will spearhead the legal effort to defend our right to free and fair elections,” and announced that Joe DiGenova, Victoria Toensing, attorney for Michael Flynn Sidney Powell, and Trump Campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis is also reportedly participating in the effort.
Trump has yet to concede, although Biden has secured more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
John Roberts, Kellianne Jones, Ronn Blitzer, and Fox News’ Associated Press contributed to this report.
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