Wisconsin Issues Recount Order Sought By Trump In 2 Counties

MADISON, Wis.: The Wisconsin Elections Commission issued an order Thursday to recount more than 800,000 ballots cast in two heavily liberal counties at President Donald Trump’s request.

The order, required by law after Trump paid $3 million for the recount, was agreed to after rancorous debate for more than five hours Wednesday night that foreshadows the partisan battle ahead.

Its just remarkable the six of us in a civilized fashion cant agree to this stuff, Democratic commissioner Mark Thomsen said hours into the debate. The commission is split 3-3 between Democrats and Republicans.

The recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties, where Joe Biden outpolled Trump by a more than 2-to-1 margin, will begin Friday and must be done by Dec. 1. Biden won statewide by 20,608 votes. Trumps campaign has cited irregularities in the counties, although no evidence of illegal activity has been presented.

We understand the eyes of the world will be on these Wisconsin counties over the next few weeks, Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin’s top elections official, said Thursday. We remain committed to providing information about the process and assisting our county clerks by providing facts on the mechanics of a recount and status updates.

The commission argued over changes to its manual that provides guidance to local elections officials over how to conduct recounts. Ultimately, they decided not to reference the manual in the order, but they did update some parts to reflect accommodations for the coronavirus pandemic.

The commissioners deadlocked on making changes to the manual that Democrats and elections commission staff said would bring the guidance into line with current state law. Republicans balked, saying the guidelines should not be changed after Trump filed for the recount.

Their inability to agree leaves in place guidance that says absentee ballot applications must be approved as part of the recount, even though commission staff said thats not required under the law.

Democratic commissioners said they were certain the recount was headed to court even though Trumps claims were without merit.

Board Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, said Trumps allegation that election clerks mailed thousands of absentee ballots to voters who hadnt requested them was absurd, factually bizarre and a vague, paranoid conspiracy.

What we ought not be doing is watering that plant of baloney, she said.

Republican commissioners Dean Knudson and Bob Spindell questioned whether election observers would be treated fairly by Democratic county clerks in Milwaukee and Madison. At one point, Knudson even appeared to question whether absentee ballots requested through the elections commissions state website were invalid because of how the requests are recorded.

I hope we havent created a system at WEC that entices people to request a ballot that actually isnt in keeping with the law, he said.

Knudson, a former state lawmaker, has been on the commission since 2017 and like many office holders in Wisconsin encouraged voters to sign up for absentee ballots on the website. In August, he tweeted a link to the site along with the exhortation to request absentee ballot now.

Democrats dismissed Knudsons concerns as outlandish, noting that the system has been in place unchallenged for years.

Thomsen said Trump was challenging the validity of the election only because he lost, but he had no problem with Wisconsins election rules in 2016 when he won by fewer than 23,000 votes.

Milwaukee County is the states largest, home to the city of Milwaukee, and Black people make up about 27% 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 disputes at the commission had echoes of what happened in Michigan on Tuesday. Republicans on a canvassing board for the county that includes Detroit temporarily stopped certification of the vote after claiming that poll books in certain parts of the majority-Black city were out of balance. The deadlock brought claims of racism from Democrats before the board later voted unanimously to certify the results. The Republicans said they want to change their stance again, but officials said certification of the vote will stand.

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