Trump campaign to file for recount in two Wisconsin counties

President Trump’s campaign said Wednesday it intends to file a petition for a recount in two Wisconsin counties, Milwaukee and Dane, amid a broader effort to challenge the results of the election. 

The campaign said it transferred $3 million to Wisconsin in order to cover the estimated cost of the recounts, an amount that, while large, is significantly smaller than the $8 million that it would cost to conduct a recount of votes across the entire state.

The move comes after officials completed a statewide canvass of votes that showed President-elect Joe Biden won Wisconsin by 20,608 votes over Trump. The campaign faced a 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday to file a petition requesting a recount. It is highly unlikely that a recount will change the results of the race in Wisconsin, given Biden’s margin of victory, however.

Around the time that Biden was projected the winner in Wisconsin, the campaign said Trump planned to request a recount in the Badger State but the action could not be taken until after the vote canvass was completed.

The campaign on Wednesday cited what it claimed to be illegally altered and issued absentee ballots and what it described as illegal advice given by government officials on Wisconsin voter ID laws.

“The people of Wisconsin deserve to know whether their election processes worked in a legal and transparent way,” Jim Troupis, a counsel to the Trump campaign, said in a statement.

“Regrettably, the integrity of the election results cannot be trusted without a recount in these two counties and uniform enforcement of Wisconsin absentee ballot requirements. We will not know the true results of the election until only the legal ballots cast are counted,” Troupis said.

Wisconsin is among a handful of battleground states that Biden flipped this year after Trump won it in 2016. The Trump campaign has over the past two weeks sent emails and text messages to supporters to fundraise for its legal efforts.

Biden was projected the winner of the presidential race on Nov. 7, four days after Election Day, after extending his lead in multiple states. Trump has refused to concede the election to Biden, however, and his campaign has instead sought to challenge the results in court.

The campaign has not produced evidence backing up Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.