MILKING VOTES
Don pays for recount of 2 liberal Wis. counties
President Trump filed for a long-shot recount in just two Wisconsin counties after Democrat Joe Biden defeated him in the state by more than 20,600 votes.
In a move that slashed the cost for Trump, his campaign forked over just $3 million for a recount in overwhelmingly Democratic Milwaukee and Dane counties, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Wednesday.
It would’ve cost the president $8 million to bankroll a quixotic recount of the entire state.
The recount targets two counties that Biden won by yawning margins. The Democrat swept Milwaukee by a 180,000-vote margin and won Dane, which includes the liberal bastion of Madison, by nearly 3-to-1 over Trump.
“The official canvass results reaffirmed Joe Biden’s clear and resounding win in Wisconsin after Wisconsin voters turned out to cast their ballots in record numbers,” said Biden campaign spokesman Nate Evans. “A cherry-picked and selective recounting of Milwaukee and Dane County willill not changeh theseh results.”l”
Milwaukee County is the state’s largest, home to the city of Milwaukee, and Black people make up about 27% of the population. Dane County is home to the liberal capital city of Madison and the flagship University of Wisconsin campus.
The Trump campaign also alleges that local election clerks issued absentee ballots to voters without requiring an application, in violation of state law. Trump’s complaint alleges that 60,000 votes were cast by people who didn’t submit a written application, bbut offeredffd no evidence.id
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said there was “no proof” to back up that claim.
“I would encourage them to provide the proof,” he said.
Dean Knudson, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said Trump raised “significant legal questions that have never been adjudicated in Wisconsin.”
But a fellow commission member, Democrat Mark Thomsen, said Trump was trying to change the rules of the election after he lost, but only in two counties.
“That’s like losing the Super Bowl and then saying ’I want a review of a certain play using different rules than what applied to the rest of the game,’” Thomsen said. “That is the essence of hypocrisy and cheating and dishonesty.”
Insiders on both sides of the aisle say there is no way the recount will change the result. Even Wisconsin’s fiercely partisan Republican ex-Gov. Scott Walker pointed out that recent counts only shifted dozens of votes, far short of what Trump needs.
Recounts in Wisconsin and across the country have historically resulted in very few vote changes. A 2016 presidential recount in Wisconsin netted Trump an additional 131 votes.
Election leaders in Milwaukee and Dane counties said they would live stream the recount to be done at convention centers in both Milwaukee and Madison, with room for observers in person. The recount will continue for both counties over the weekend, taking off only for Thanksgiving, until complete and must be finalized by Dec. 1