Trump’s claim on Wis. vote is baseless
The claim: “Actually, I won Wisconsin.” — President Donald Trump.
In his first major appearance since the presidential election, President Donald Trump was the main attraction at a Dec. 5 rally in Valdosta, Ga., where he repeated a broken record of wrong and baseless claims, arguing there had been massive fraud and he actually had won the election, defeating Democrat Joe Biden
PolitiFact rating: Pants on Fire! There is a preponderance of evidence, including Election Day tallies and a partial recount, illustrating exactly the opposite — that challenger Biden is the winner in Wisconsin.
Discussion
On Nov. 4, 2020, the morning after Election Day, the Associated Press declared Biden the winner in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported unofficial results showed Biden with a lead of about 20,000 votes — and that the Trump campaign already was vowing to request a recount.
When it did request the recount, Trump's team focused only on heavily Democratic Dane and Milwaukee counties. But by the time the recount was over, Trump actually fell further behind.
Biden netted 132 votes in Milwaukee County and Trump netted 45 votes in Dane County. Taken together, that increased Biden's statewide margin to 20,695 votes out of about 3 million cast, the Journal Sentinel reported on Nov. 29, 2020. The overall net pickup for Biden in the two recounts was 74.
Having failed, the Trump campaign turned to the court system.
But on Dec. 3, 2020, in a 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court rejected the campaign's request to overturn the certification of votes. Instead, the court said Trump's campaign had to start at the circuit court level.
It was a major setback, with even dissenting judges indicating they may reject the call to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots.
A day later, the court said it would not accept a lawsuit by
Trump allies who wanted to let Republican lawmakers decide how to cast the state’s electoral votes, rather than the electors chosen by voters in the election.
Meanwhile, the campaign also went to the federal court, where U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig questioned whether the case should even be before him, calling part of the lawsuit’s requested remedy “really bizarre” and told an attorney for the Trump campaign it was seeking “pretty remarkable declaratory relief.”
In any case, on Nov. 30, the recounted totals were certified by the chair of the state elections board and Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat.
In a statement, Evers said: “Today I carried out my duty to certify the November 3rd election, and as required by state and federal law, I’ve signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.”
That sets in motion the Electoral College vote today, which will involve 10 Democratic electors.
It also means Biden — not Trump — won.
There is no evidence to support the claim Trump won Wisconsin. The claim, on its face, is ridiculous.