US Elections: Donald Trump Pays Millions For Big Wisconsin Vote Recount

Donald Trump has shared a fake graphic that appears to show that Joe Biden received a “dump” of votes in Wisconsin that pushed the Democratic candidate to the fore as his campaign sheds $ 3 million ($ 4.3 million) for a count.

“Look at this in Wisconsin!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “One day AFTER the election, Biden received 143,379 votes at 3.42 am, when they found out he was losing a lot. This is unbelievable!”

The graph was originally shared by San Diego data expert Justin Hart, who said the information was based on the New York Times record of changes in its presidential vote counts, believed to have come from the voting machine company. Dominion.

“Take a look at the wild ride in Wisconsin where Donald Trump leads 51 percent overnight to a landfill at 3.42am,” Hart wrote, adding: “Now there could be a good reason for this … but transparency is not a thing of NOBODY is very good at this point in time. It certainly stands out. “

Local journalists criticized the claim as false.

“This was not a vote ‘dump’, it was when election officials completed the count of absentee votes,” wrote Molly Beck, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

His colleague Mary Spicuzza added: “Milwaukee County officials had repeatedly said they would count absentee ballots for hours. Many of us … stayed up all night watching the process.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission had already rejected similar claims, saying last week that “minor errors by the media in reporting unofficial Wisconsin results do not affect the outcome of the election” and insisting that “ballots absent were counted correctly, regardless of when the results were obtained. ” reported “.

The president lost to Biden by 20,608 votes in the key state, 1,610,065 to 1,630,673, a 0.7 percent margin.

It came as the Trump campaign on Wednesday disbursed $ 3 million ($ 4.3 million) to formally request a recount in Wisconsin’s two largest counties, Milwaukee and Dane, citing “illegally altered absentee ballots, illegally cast absentee ballots and illegal advice provided by the government. ” officials who allow the circumvention of Wisconsin voter identification laws. “

“The Wisconsin Elections Commission has directed Wisconsin city clerks to illegally alter incomplete absentee ballots contrary to Wisconsin law,” the campaign said in a statement.

“The clerks were instructed that they could rely on their own ‘personal knowledge’, or on unspecified ‘lists or databases at their disposal’ to add information missing from returned absentee ballots. Wisconsin, incomplete absentee ballots cannot be counted. “

The campaign also alleges that officials “issued absentee ballots to voters without requiring an application, in direct conflict with Wisconsin’s absentee voting guarantees.”

“Wisconsin law expressly requires that absentee ballots cannot be cast without receiving a written request requesting the ballot,” the statement said.

“Despite this clear mandatory requirement, the clerks uniformly cast absentee ballots without collecting a written request from individuals who requested absentee ballots in person during the extended two-week absentee voting period in person. from October 20, 2020 to November 1, 2020 “.

Fox News reports, however, that Wisconsin Elections Commission guidance says clerks can fix missing address information on absentee ballot envelopes if they have reliable information.

The guide was unanimously approved by the commission in 2016 and has been used in 11 elections without objection.

Election officials across the United States have repeatedly emphasized that the elections were safe and fair. Studies show that incidents of voter fraud are incredibly rare.

However, the Trump campaign further alleges that Wisconsin officials “illegally advised voters to misrepresent that they were indefinitely confined.”

“Those who claimed to be ‘indefinitely confined’ increased from 72,000 in 2019 to more than 240,000 at the time of the November 3, 2020 election,” the statement said.

“A substantial number of those who claimed that status were sent and then returned their ballots without proper identification and without meeting the requirements for that status.”

Wisconsin officials have previously said no wrongdoing or widespread problems were reported.

“We understand that the eyes of the world will be on these Wisconsin counties for the next several weeks,” said Meagan Wolfe, the state’s top election official, in a statement acknowledging receipt of the recount request.

“We remain committed to providing information on the process and assisting our county clerks by providing data on the mechanics of a count and status updates.”

The statement noted that the Wisconsin Elections Commission would hold a “special meeting” to discuss the details of the recount “and to review the Recount Manual supplements in light of public health guidelines.”

The Trump campaign characterized the meeting as an attempt to “change the rules” at the last minute as part of a long-term strategy by the president to try to paint the election as “rigged”, without any evidence.

“BREAKING: The Wisconsin Elections Commission, after seeing the recount request and President Trump’s objections, is trying to change the recount manual at an emergency meeting tonight at 6 p.m. to make the objections more hard to do, “Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt said on Twitter. “This must stop.”

Team Trump attorney Jenna Ellis wrote: “Typical of the Democrats … they broke the rules, so now they’re trying to change the rules. Now they run scared.”

Nate Evans, Biden’s communications director in Wisconsin, said the campaign remained confident of the outcome.

“The official poll results reaffirmed Joe Biden’s clear and resounding victory in Wisconsin after Wisconsin voters cast their votes in record numbers,” he said in a statement.

“A chosen and selective recount of Milwaukee and Dane County will not change these results. Election officials worked extremely hard under unprecedented circumstances to ensure that all votes were counted quickly and accurately, and the recount required and paid for by the campaign Trump will once again confirm Joe Biden’s victory. “

It comes as the Trump campaign continues to attempt to reverse election results in key states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, through a combination of legal challenges and requests for recount and audits.

The president has refused to bow to Biden, making broad allegations of voter fraud and claiming the election was “rigged.”

Time is running out to present your case. The electoral college will meet in each state on December 14 and will formally vote on the winner.