Presidential recount kicks off in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE — An army of county clerks and election workers across Wisconsin began the 13-day race Thursday to recount nearly 3 million presidential ballots in the nation’s first statewide presidential recount since 2004.

President-elect Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by some 22,000 votes in Wisconsin and most experts say the recount has little chance of changing the outcome.

But Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who got a little over 1 percent of the Wisconsin vote, pushed for the recount amid unsubstantiated claims that there was a chance the election might have been hacked and put up $3.5 million to cover the costs. Stein is also pressing for recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

In many counties, the recount got off to a slow start, with the tedium of paperwork, record-keeping and counting ballots poised to play out day after day to a Dec. 13 deadline to certify the results.

Capturing the mood and determination to complete the task was Marinette County Clerk Kathy Brandt, who said she was relying on “coffee, caffeine and chocolate” to keep her tabulators happy and even planning to play Christmas music CDs.

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Election Commission said that starting Friday the agency will be trying to gather and release daily recount data from each county in the state showing any tally changes for voting wards.

In addition, the agency will be collecting an explanation from local officials for all the cases in which 10 or more votes are changed in a given reporting unit.

In the official count of the 2.98 million votes cast in Wisconsin, Trump was certified to have won by 22,177 votes. The final numbers could shift but the outcome is very unlikely to change if this recount behaves as other statewide recounts have in Wisconsin and elsewhere.